On Debian Jessie, in order to run the latest LO version which is not offered by the package manager, I had manually installed LO. (That is, I had elected to go around the Debian offered packages, and install 5.2.2.2 via a download directly from LibreOffice.org.)
Now, some months later, how do I upgrade from 5.2.2.2 to 5.2.3.3?
0) It has been very sad to see several recent questions here, from people who didn’t have backups, and so lost important and valuable, possibly unrecoverable things.
So I strongly suggest you backup your entire Linux system before proceeding! If you don’t know how to do this, I suggest you figure this out first, if only because you should be doing this for many other reasons as well.
My entire first month with Linux was focused on one goal: to get to the stage where I had a solid understanding, and reliable tools, to backup and restore my system. In that initial process I lost all my work several times and had to start all over. One of these losses was of a week’s work!
So to possibly help you, I documented my personal backup solution, which is to first boot from a USB stick where I run the backup/restore processes. This makes sure your system is asleep (or quintessence) while you are backing it up, which is important to get or restore a clean snapshot of your system. You can find my detailed instructions here.
1) To do the upgrade, I suggest using this article with detailed instructions.
It was surprisingly hard to find these instructions, so that is why I created a self answered question here to point to them for the next time I have to upgrade and can’t remember how.
Just incase the link above breaks, once you get the deb files out of the archive use: sudo dpkg -i *.deb
If I backed up my system every time I removed or installed an LO package I wouldn’t have time to do anything else. I’ve done this half dozen times in one day for different testing. One command to remove, one to install. Got over a dozen different versions sitting around. Don’t know why you had a hard time finding instructions, they’re posted in multiple spots. Found multiple right now in a quick search.
As far as actual backups, I used many products (mostly freeware) over the years and Linux is much easier to back/restore than some other OS’s. Wouldn’t touch USB - don’t even have one. Boot right from CD or DVD - currently Clonezilla. Backups & restore quick & simple. Have $20 (after rebate) 3-slot removable rack and just slip in another drive for the backup storage. Pull it out when done and store it (also have USB external docking station - US $10 on sale). These devices also good for cloning. A backup isn’t very good if you have it on the same drive you just backed up. I’ve had drives go completely dead.
You also learn that even if people take some kind of backup (which most don’t until it’s too late), it isn’t stored properly anyway. Ask a person if they take backups. If they say yes, ask where they put the backup. 99% will say in the desk drawer. Now, what happens if there is a fire, theft, water damage etc. Lot of good it does. Decades of trying to help people and they don’t pay attention until it’s too late anyway.
BTW - Tried Debian just for the heck of it (already half dozen different Linux flavors) and sorry to say this, but it was the worst at installation, was slow and frankly outdated as far as the Kernel and a variety of other things. Little and no support for many devices older or newer.
It is good to have some instructions logged somewhere (glanced at yours - looks like a pain just for a USB) and I commend you for detailing some. Unfortunately, searching the net now produces many variations on how to do something - some good and some very bad. The problem is weeding out the bad.
Sorry for ranting. The only reason I posted this was I DON’T see a reason to back up a system just to upgrade a piece of software, especially if system backups are taken on a regular basis.
One more point on backups. How many recent questions (last 60-90 days) are about lost documents or spreadsheets? Did you know right in this forum there is a set macros you can install to automatically have timestamped backups for anything but base (different set of problems)? See this post. Now 125 views - not a lot. Works great!
@Ratslinger, Sorry for my rant. Good point you make about physical backup location. When I came back to nix after ~20 years w/ Windows, I was amazed at the sad state of affairs in nix related to solid backup tools and advice. (I started w/ Ubuntu but had been spoiled by Acronis on Win7). So much wrong and misguided information on the net about nix backups, w/ some even suggesting you can backup a running OS, but never mentioning that you must use a snapshot-able file system like btrfs.
No need for apologies. Mine was warranted. Back in the 90’s I was responsible for Disaster Recovery for a US West Coast service bureau to financial institutions. The FDIC (government regulations) was always on our case for recovery. Guess it’s just a sore spot for me.
Agreed - this is a LO forum but just above Debian is Ubuntu w/Unity. Used Xubuntu for quite a while until Mint 18 Cinnamon came along (17.x was OK). Mint 18 KDE is just some glitter. Even used Red Hat in the day. OpenSUSE is good for specifics. Best all around for me is Mint 18 Cinnamon. Three different systems on one drive and more on other drives. Nice for testing. Gave up on Windows after Win 7 (had actually used it since before it was Windows).