Can't install MS office 2010 in ubuntu 17.10 via PlayonLinux

Question

I cannot install MS Office 2010 via PlayonLinux in my ubuntu 17.10 (I used to have it in my Ubuntu 17.04 and MS Office 2010 worked fine). The installation boots, I insert the setup.exe file and press ok. Then the windows installation run and everything stops. This is the last window that PlayonLinux opens and hangs on it.

I have run the following usual commands before trying to install it: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Followed this video and use his installation package: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf8zr096mYQ

UPDATE:

The actual bug is the following:

    [POL_Wine] Message: Notice: PlayOnLinux deliberately disables winemenubuilder. See http://www.playonlinux.com/fr/page-26-Winemenubuilder.html
Wine cannot find the FreeType font library.  To enable Wine to
use TrueType fonts please install a version of FreeType greater than
or equal to 2.0.5.
http://www.freetype.org
Wine cannot find the FreeType font library.  To enable Wine to
use TrueType fonts please install a version of FreeType greater than
or equal to 2.0.5.
http://www.freetype.org

Edit 17/2/2018: After I select the version of wine I want POL to use (system version), POL runs into another error preventing me to install MS Office. Below is the output:

[POL_Wine] Message: Notice: PlayOnLinux deliberately disables winemenubuilder. See http://www.playonlinux.com/fr/page-26-Winemenubuilder.html
p11-kit: couldn't load module: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/gnome-keyring-pkcs11.so: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/gnome-keyring-pkcs11.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directorywine: Unhandled page fault on read access to 0x00000004 at address 0x7e9129d1 (thread 0022), starting debugger...
fixme:advapi:RegisterTraceGuidsA (0x2e034c1f, 0x2e0b3d78, {8736922d-e8b2-47eb-8564-23e77e728cf3}, 1, 0x33fd08, (null), (null), 0x2e0b3d78): stub
fixme:process:GetSystemDEPPolicy stub
fixme:process:SetProcessDEPPolicy (1): stub
fixme:advapi:RegisterTraceGuidsA (0x101f411c, 0x103a37e8, {8736922d-e8b2-47eb-8564-23e77e728cf3}, 1, 0x33ee24, (null), (null), 0x103a37e8): stub
fixme:system:SetProcessDPIAware stub!
fixme:htmlhelp:HtmlHelpW HH case HH_INITIALIZE not handled.
fixme:richedit:REExtendedRegisterClass semi stub
wine: Unhandled page fault on read access to 0x00000004 at address 0x7e6e29d1 (thread 0009), starting debugger...
winedbg: Internal crash at 0x7e7ea9d1
02/17/18 12:56:26 - [POL_Wine] Error: Wine seems to have crashed\n\nIf your program is running, just ignore this message

Solution

Follow instructions from this link:

https://gist.github.com/raelgc/4ccc023830bfd12c0227

It worked on Ubuntu 18.10, for both MS Office 2007 and 2010

---

Install Microsoft Office 2010 on Ubuntu

Requirements

We'll install MSOffice using the PlayOnLinux wizard. Additionally, MSOffice requires samba and winbind to properly work.

So, if not installed, install them:

sudo apt-get install playonlinux samba winbind

Of course, you'll need the MSOffice installer files (either DVD/folder files), in the 32 bits version. Even if you're under Ubuntu 64, we'll use a 32 bits wine installation.

Then open POL (PlayOnLinux) from command line (playonlinux &) or using Dash.

Pre Install

In the POL window menu, go to Tools > Manage Wine versions and install Wine 2.13. Versions below it will crash after click on a document hyperlink. Versions above it will not properly handle the launcher icon (due missing WM_CLASS when window is maximized).

Install

In the POL window, click on Install at top (the one with a plus sign).

1. PlayOnLinux Install menu

At the Install window, at the bottom, select Office and make sure Commercial (at top) is marked.

Now select Microsoft Office 2010 and click on Install.

2. Welcome to PlayOnLinux Installation Wizard

Nothing to do here other then click on the Next button.

3. Please Choose an Installation Method

Now it's up to you: select DVD or file installation according your MSOffice installation.

Then click on Next.

Browse the files or the DVD: the goal here is select the MSOffice setup.exe, from the 32 bits version.

Now, after click on Next: you'll see a sequence of PlayOnLinux installation windows, configuring the new Windows virtual drive, installing components, etc.

4. The MSOffice Install Wizard

Automatically the MSOffice installer will be displayed.

Install the MSOffice as on Windows: agree with EULA, select install type, etc.

In the last Install window, click on Close in the MSOffice installer: you'll see a PlayOnLinux window still running some additional configurations.

Then, a successful message: click on Next and the install window will be closed.

Now you can close PlayOnLinux.

Post Install

1. Desktop Files

Current PlayOnLinux Office2010 script already creates the above shortchuts.

But in case you deleted them or want to fix something...

Now let's create some .desktop files to provide better integration into Ubuntu: you can associate typical MSOffice files, like .docx to Word; at Dash, type winword to run Word, etc.

Open a text editor (like gedit, nano or vim) and create 3 files under ~/.local/share/applications, with the following names and contents.

Please, replace /home/<user> (at the Icon line) by your home folder path:

Word.desktop:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Categories=Office;WordProcessor;
StartupWMClass=WINWORD.EXE
Name=Microsoft Office Word 2010
Comment=winword
Exec=env XMODIFIERS='' playonlinux --run "Microsoft Word 2010" %F
Icon=/home/<user>/.PlayOnLinux/icones/full_size/Microsoft Word 2010

Excel.desktop:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Categories=Office;Spreadsheet;
StartupWMClass=EXCEL.EXE
Name=Microsoft Office Excel 2010
Comment=excel
Exec=env XMODIFIERS='' playonlinux --run "Microsoft Excel 2010" %F
Icon=/home/<user>/.PlayOnLinux/icones/full_size/Microsoft Excel 2010

PowerPoint.desktop:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Categories=Office;Presentation;
Terminal=false
StartupWMClass=POWERPNT.EXE
Name=Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010
Comment=powerpnt
Exec=env XMODIFIERS='' playonlinux --run "Microsoft Powerpoint 2010" %F
Icon=/home/<user>/.PlayOnLinux/icones/full_size/Microsoft Powerpoint 2010

OneNote.desktop:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Categories=Office;Documentation;
Terminal=false
StartupWMClass=ONENOTE.EXE
Name=Microsoft Office OneNote 2010
Comment=onenote
Exec=env XMODIFIERS='' playonlinux --run "Microsoft OneNote 2010" %F
Icon=/home/<user>/.PlayOnLinux/icones/full_size/Microsoft OneNote 2010

After create those 4 files, open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T`) and run this command to refresh the Dash entries:

sudo update-desktop-database

One clarification: the env XMODIFIERS='' command in the Exec line is to prevent wine to change keyboard behavior (sometimes while using wine the keyboard uses a different layout, so accents will not work properly, etc).

2. Printers

If you have a printer properly configured under Ubuntu, probably it'll be automatically available to MSOffice under wine.

If not, we can make it available. Basically, your printer must be installed using cups. No problem if the printer is installed using other softwares/drivers, but to get it available for wine, it must be installed under cups too.

If cups package is not installed, install it:

sudo apt-get install cups

Then, open http://localhost:631/ and add your printer.

After configure it, print a test page using the related printer in Printers from System Settings.

Now, make sure you have this file: /etc/printcap. If it's not present, create it this way:

ln -sf /var/run/cups/printcap /etc/printcap

Reboot wine: open PlayOnLinux, click Configure, select Office2010, click on Wine tab and click on Windows reboot button.

3. Fix Alternate between Excel windows

When you open 2 files in Excel, and click on Excel icon in the launcher by the second time to see opened files (Expose), you'll see a weird behavior: one window properly rendered, and the second with just a single icon.

To fix this, open Excel, then File > Options > Advanced > General and check Ignore other applications that use Dyanamic Data Exchange (DDE).

Then, to alternate between Excel files, on Excel click on View tab and then click on Alternate Windows.

Comments

[EODCraft Staff]

Just Use a Virtual Box Instance of Windows and use that. If you ever do get it installed you will never be able to activate it unless your a computer programmer.

[Alessio_110]

Virtual box is nice but it is really slow compared to playonlinux. For what I need playonlinux is better. Plus I don't have a windows OS and I wouldn't Windows virtual machine for more than ms office

[EODCraft Staff]

Just adding my experiences, not really a debate.

[Alessio_110]

Really appreciate it sir! Just out of curiosity how much space does a windows virtual machine takes?

[EODCraft Staff]

Mine took 25 GB but that is what I allowed...Not sure of what it actually would take.

[Alessio_110]

It is a lot unfortunately for just running ms office!! This is the reason why I keep Ubuntu and Linux only distributions ahah! Thank you very much for your contributions!

[Andrea Lazzarotto]

Are you using the Wine version provided with Ubuntu or one downloaded through the PlayOnLinux Wine versions manager?

[Alessio_110]

Playonlinux forces me to use 1.7.52 wine versión even if I have installed different version on my machine

[Andrea Lazzarotto]

@Alessio_110 Please tag me if you want to answer my request for clarification. You are the author of the post so only you are notified of comments, unless somebody is tagged. You could try to change the Wine version after the Wine container is created by POL, then manually running the exe again inside it. Have you tried that?

[Alessio_110]

@AndreaLazzarotto thank you for the corrections. So what I have tried is: 1. creating the container and selecting a preferred version of wine (different than 1.7.52) through the selection of version of wine, RESULT: POL still uses 1.7.52. 2 please see edited answer on 17/2/2018. downloaded and installed updated version of Wine and right click on setup.exe file of MS Office, RESULT: unknown error.

[Shawn Eary]

@EODCraft Staff - One problem with using VirtualMachines to host certain old versions of MS Windows is that I think you may still technically need an MS Windows license for every physical and virtual instance of Windows you create. So technically if you create one physical instance and four virtual instances, you need five licenses. I certainly hope this doesn't apply, however, if you are just creating the instances for testing or evaluation purposes. I hope Microsoft changes this scheme for older versions of Windows someday...

[EODCraft Staff]

Yea, installing was never an issue..I have a valid Key for MS Office but it will never validate it. So sad I had to return to Windows just to use MS Office.

[Thomas Ward]

Please don't post the same answer many times to different questions. This is called 'spamming'. If the questions are similar enough, please vote to close the questions as duplicates instead.