LibreOffice 7.1.2.2 compiled in OE

The last time that I compiled LibreOffice (LO) in OpenEmbedded (OE) was in the Pyro-series. My port of OE back then is still on github, search for "oe-qky-src'.

It wasn't easy though. I couldn't have done it myself -- 'schnitzeltony' is the guy who did most of the hard work, see his github repo:

https://github.com/schnitzeltony/meta-office

Someone once described cross-compiling a major app is like trying to sweep sh*t uphill. Yeah, it is unnatural. Some source packages, though, even large ones -- Gnumeric comes to mind -- are so cleanly designed that they cross-compile without any issues.

Developers will usually use a cross-compiler to create a basic working Linux system, then either run it on native target hardware, or in a virtual machine, to compile more apps.

OE though, is a powerful beast, a complicated monster of a build environment, and it can be made to cross-compile any app, even LibreOffice.
There is a certain satisfaction with this -- select the target architecture, say aarch64, and let her rip. Wait at least 9 hours, and there are all the packages compiled and ready to use in a distro.

For the Dunfell-series of EasyOS, packages compiled in the Dunfell release of OE, with my EasyOS layer, I have not compiled LO. Instead, I compiled it after getting a running EasyOS. I posted how that was done:

https://bkhome.org/news/202104/how-to-compile-libreoffice-in-easyos.html

Yesterday I decided to take on the challenge of compiling LO in OE. Success. As before, schnitzeltony's recipe doesn't work as-is for me, needed lots of hacking. but got there.

Next thing, want to make some changes to the pre-compile configuration and the dependencies, and build it again. Then intend to use it in the next release of EasyOS ...ha ha, maybe should reduce that to a two-letter acronym also, "EO"  --- so compiled LO in OE and it will be in the next EO.

My OE-Dunfell is not on github, only uploaded as tarballs. Will upload the latest in a day or two, to here:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/project/oe/dunfell/

A note about the latest compile in OE: have dropped support for 'jack', and have removed 'modemmanager' and 'modem-manager-gui'. Won't go into the reasons now.  

Tags: easy