converting office2007 docs into open office

since i use open.office and, unfortunately, many of my students computers are now being delivered with ms.office.2007 -- on occasion, i find myself unable to open some of their documents.

luckily, you can obtain a copy of an odfconverter.
unluckily, it doesn't directly install in my mandriva.2008.1 build. so, thanks to a clever solution by open.office.ninja :

begin by making sure 'alien' is installed. it is included in mandriva.2008, but not installed by default. alien allows conversions among the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and slackware tgz file formats.
take the odfconverter.rpm file and make tgz file.

alien -ct odf-converter-1.1-7.i586.rpm

extract resulting file, odf-converter-1.1.tgz, via your favorite method.

then, use the 'su' command to become root and execute the following commands.
[notice that i have been working in my 'Download' subdirectory.]

[root@localhost Download]# cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/program/OdfConverter /usr/bin
[root@localhost Download]# cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/program/OdfConverter /usr/lib/openoffice/program/

to make openoffice use the odfconverter automatically
(per http://wvarner.blogspot.com/2008/02/microsoft-docx-files-on-ubuntu-gusty.html ) but with directory structures ever-so-slightly modified for mandriva 2008.1:

[root@localhost Download]# cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/program/OdfConverter
/usr/lib/ooo-2.2/program/

[root@localhost Download]# cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Filter/MOOXFilter_cpp.xcu /usr/lib/ooo-2.2/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Filter/

[root@localhost Download]# cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Types/MOOXTypeDetection.xcu /usr/lib/ooo-2.2/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Types/

and.... we're off!!!

simple xrandr fix

somehow this escaped me... in your xorg.conf file, add the following entry to the [screen] section
.

• Option "RandRRotation" "true"

now, both xrandr and krandr work.
(some minor fixes to make the stylus track properly under rotated screen to follow)

duh.

[note added 2008/01/20: if you use the suggestion located here, which replaces the 'intel' with 'i810' driver in your xorg.conf file -- you WILL lose your wacom tablet... ]

linux, x60t and a non-working stylus

2 days ago, my stylus stopped working. no number of reboots, x-server restarts or 'setserial ... ' commands had any effect. a quick run of wacdump resulted in some interesting "high bit" and "lobit" errors in the lower right hand corner of the results screen.

i removed all the wacom software and reloaded from mandriva sources to no avail. i then built the wacom drivers from source with no joy. i dumped it all... reloaded the mandriva version of the wacom drivers..... and .... nothing but "high bit" errors from wacdump.

inspiration struck and i opened my local .xinitrc file -- and it included a set of commands that i did NOT enter, as follows (probably from wacomcpl):

xsetwacom set stylus TPCButton "on"
xsetwacom set stylus button3 "Button 3"
xsetwacom set stylus button2 "Button 2"
xsetwacom set stylus button1 "Button 1"
xsetwacom set stylus ClickForce "6"
xsetwacom set stylus PressCurve "0 0 100 100"
xsetwacom set eraser bottomy "18449"
xsetwacom set eraser bottomx "24622"
xsetwacom set eraser topy "73"
xsetwacom set eraser topx "45"
xsetwacom set stylus bottomy "18449"
xsetwacom set stylus bottomx "24622"
xsetwacom set stylus topy "73"
xsetwacom set stylus topx "45"
xsetwacom set eraser ClickForce "6"
xsetwacom set eraser PressCurve "0 0 100 100"
xsetwacom set eraser button1 "Button 1"

after deleting them and restarting x... everything was back to 'normal', i can even point and click with my fingertip!

it also may be my imagination -- but the stylus appears to be less 'jittery' in gimp. the eraser, however, still does not work (nor does the stylus button).