NLPSolver not showing in LO Calc snap version (Ubuntu 18.04)

johnnycomelately · June 21, 2020, 7:58am

I read this question (Non-linear solver doesn't "show up" in Calc) and used the following command to install the non-linear solver for calc:

sudo apt-get install libreoffice-nlpsolver

I have two versions of Calc installed on Ubuntu 18.04, a “normal” version (6.0.7.3) and a “snap” version (6.4.4.2). After running the command, I do see two new solvers (DEPS and SCO) in the normal version of calc but not in the snap version.

Is there a way to get the evolutionary solvers to show up in the snap version of Calc? Do I need to manually move a file somewhere?

Lupp · June 21, 2020, 9:14am

Versions installed in parallel have their different user profiles. Since extensions are installed to the user profile (afaik), you need to do it for your Dev version a second time.
BTW: 7.0.0 coming soon.

johnnycomelately · June 21, 2020, 9:16am

Thanks for this but when I run the same sudo command again, it says I already the newest version. I still do not understand what to do. Any insights would be greatly welcomed.

anon73440385 · June 21, 2020, 11:56am

sudo apt-get install libreoffice-nlpsolver

This is wrong here since snap is a different thing than apt and you installed a snap 6.4.4 LibreOffice version, hence you would need a snap-based procedure to install the solver extension. But snap release doesn’t provide the extension - unlike apt/deb installs - by default. In fact couldn’t find an extension in snap repositories using snap search ... command. Finally, downloading nlpsolver.oxt and trying to install the extension manually in snap version of LibreOffice failed due to some missing java support, and at that point my dislike of snap got confirmed enough to stop all further efforts …

mikekaganski · June 21, 2020, 12:03pm

DEPS and SCO solvers depend on Java. Do you have Java configured and usable in your Snap version (no idea if it may use the same Java as the version from apt repo).

johnnycomelately · June 23, 2020, 4:06am

Thanks to all the comments, I found the solution and wanted to document it here for future generations.

Thanks to @anon73440385 who reminded me that apt is not used for snaps.

Download nlpsolver.oxt from Solver for Nonlinear Programming [BETA] | Apache OpenOffice Extensions
Open Calc 6.4 (my version as a snap), go to Tools->Extension Manager, click Add
Browse to nlpsolver.oxt and add it, it should be signed by Sun
Restart Calc

Now it should work.

@anon73440385 commented about the need for Java but I already had that installed (needed to get Zotero to integrate with Writer).

mikekaganski · December 18, 2022, 10:00am

Modulo How to troubleshoot the DEPS Solver initialization error in macro in Calc 7.3? - the unmaintained SUN extension has multiple problems that shown up over the years, and had been resolved in the version that is bundled/packaged from LibreOffice source tree.