OpenOffice 3.0 Installer issues

The problem

I just had a problem with the installer of OpenOffice.org 3.0. I wanted to modify my installation and add the Base module. I didn't have the installation files lying around so I had to download them again, which I did from http://www.openoffice.org. After downloading, the setup extracted the installation files into a specified directory and started the installation (where I expected to be able to modify my local setup). This is where the first hints of errors showed up.

The setup showed me a messagebox which told me that

The same version of this product is already installed.

and completed afterward, denying me any possibility to modify my setup. Fine, I thought and went into the Windows 'Add or Remove Programs' control panel to change my setup there. At that location I was able to modify my setup for OpenOffice 3.0 and continued to the installation. I expected it to ask me for the location of the setup files as I didn't have them at the original installation directory. It asked me for the file 'openofficeorg30.msi' and I navigated to the directory where I extracted the files after the download.

The following error telling me that

The installation file '..../openofficeorg30.msi' is not a valid installation package for the product OpenOffice.org 3.0. Try to find the installation package 'openofficeorg30.msi' in a folder from which you can install OpenOffice.org 3.0.

was a bummer. It completely refused all of my attempts to install or modify my setup at latest when it required that file 'openofficeorg30.msi' which was sitting there in the extracted installation directory and was completely valid.

The solution

It took me quite some time to track down the source of this problem but finally I got it. When I initially installed OpenOffice 3.0 the first time, I used an installation package WITHOUT an included JRE because I already had a more recent one installed. This time when I downloaded the installation files I got the default version which has an INCLUDED JRE. And seemingly, my JRE-less installation can't cope with the installation-files of OpenOffice.org 3.0 with an included JRE, throwing above stated errors at me.

I finally investigated a bit and got my hands on a setup-file without included JRE and this time modifying my setup worked flawlessly straight from the installation file itself.

The setup file with included JRE is named OOo_3.0.0_Win32Intel_install_wJRE_en-US.exe and the one without is OOo_3.0.0_Win32Intel_install_en-US.exe.

The problem here seems to be, that by default you just get JRE-including installation files from openoffice.org.

Do the following to get a setup-file for OpenOffice 3.0 without JRE:

  1. Go to http://www.openoffice.org and click on "I want to download OpenOffice.org"
  2. Don't download but click the small link below called "Get more platforms and languages".
  3. On the following page there is a small checkbox "Include the Java JRE with this download" just above the list of the download links
  4. Uncheck this checkbox
  5. Choose your favorite OpenOffice.org installation below from the list, this time you get a version which has no JRE included

Maybe this little guide is helpful for others too if they hit the same problem as I have.

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