Ubuntu 16.04 — Productivity Apps

This is a continuation of my notes on installing Ubuntu 16.04. In this post, I install the programs that I use to work (aside from programming).

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Bible

I have been using the Xiphos application. It gets the job done for searching and studying the Bible.

sudo apt-get install xiphos

For the content, I simply restored my old “sword” folder: ~/.sword. If you are a first-time installer, you can get your content from the module manager: Edit > Module Manager.

As an alternative, you can use Bible Desktop or explore one of the other options.

LibreOffice

Currently, this is the version installed by Ubuntu 16.04:

Version: 5.1.2.2
Build ID: 1:5.1.2-0ubuntu1

I like to stay up to date, so I installed the libreoffice repositiory.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

It didn’t install a new version, but I am hopeful that when version 5.2 is published, this repo will push it to me automatically. It looks like from the Release Schedule that the publish date would be about August 1st, 2016.

I like to use the Android Impress Remote app with my slide shows. So, I went to options (Tools > Options), and enabled it. It’s under LibreOffice Impress > General.

Microsoft Office

Since changing jobs, I don’t have a valid license for Office 2007. Wine doesn’t work with the later versions of Office, so I use it one of two ways. I use the Online versions of the apps through One Drive or I use them on my virtual Windows installation.

Virtualbox

Virtualbox is in the repositories and can be simply installed from the Software Center. But, that version won’t support the extension pack. If you need the features of the extension pack, you have to download the version from Oracle’s website.

I followed the instructions on the Download Page. You can do it with “Software Sources” from the menu, but here I tried it from the command-line:

sudo bash -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian xenial contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'
wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.0

Note: normally, I would think DKMS would need to be installed, but it was already installed.

Next, I downloaded the Extension Pack directly from Oracle’s website. When I opened it, it opens with Virtualbox and offers to install it. I had to agree to the agreement and put in my root password.

Finally, I checked the File > Preferences, Network and made sure that the NatNetwork and HostOnly networks existed.

Update: On my second time around installing it, I got an error, and the kernel module wouldn’t install. I got this message:

$ sudo /sbin/rcvboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules ...done.
Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules ...done.
Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS ...done.
Starting VirtualBox kernel modules ...failed!
  (modprobe vboxdrv failed. Please use 'dmesg' to find out why)

So, I tried to load the module manually:

$ sudo modprobe vboxdrv
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Required key not available

I think I found the solution on AskUbuntu. So, I tried the disable technique:

sudo mokutil --disable-validation

I gave it a password, and then I had to reboot. I brought me into a screen where I could disable the validation. I had to end out writing down the password because it asked for it in a strange order. After it was disabled, Virtualbox worked like a charm!

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