/ • This is a web feed, also known as an Atom feed. Subscribe by copying the URL from the address bar into your newsreader. Visit About Feeds to learn more and get started. It's free. Visit website Recent posts Updated on $DATE date Word Ideas, blog, etc. Zola2025-09-08T09:03:20.706302+00:00/tags/word/atom.xml 2025-09-08T09:03:20.706302+00:00 2025-09-08T09:03:20.706302+00:00 Andrew Wippler /2025-09-08-recompiling-abiword/ <p>In my quest to replace Google Docs, I came across AbiWord, Gnome's editor. It looks newer than LibreOffice, appears feature complete, and has footnote support. The only problem is that it does not have keyboard shortcuts for footnotes. This is how I compiled AbiWord from the git source:</p> <h2 id="install-the-dependencies">Install the dependencies</h2> <pre data-lang="bash" class="language-bash z-code"><code class="language-bash" data-lang="bash"><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">sudo</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> dnf install gcc gcc-c++ make autoconf automake libtool intltool m4 pkgconfig gtk3-devel libgsf-devel libxml2-devel glib2-devel libX11-devel libXext-devel libXpm-devel libXft-devel gperf bison flex libjpeg-turbo-devel libtiff-devel libpng-devel poppler-glib-devel cairo-devel pango-devel atk-devel gdk-pixbuf2-devel desktop-file-utils docbook2X docbook-dtds libxslt-devel libICE-devel libSM-devel libuuid-devel libIDL-devel boost-devel</span> </span></code></pre> <h2 id="build">Build</h2> <p>To build, one has to do "the normal Unix installation method": <code>./autogen.sh</code>, <code>./configure --prefix=$HOME/abi-install</code><sup class="footnote-reference" id="fr-1-1"><a href="#fn-1">1</a></sup>, <code>make -j$(nproc)</code>, and <code>make install</code>. However, on my Fedora 42 install, I received the error:</p> <pre data-lang="bash" class="language-bash z-code"><code class="language-bash" data-lang="bash"><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">./autogen.sh</span></span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">libtoolize:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> putting auxiliary files in <span class="z-string z-quoted z-single z-shell"><span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-begin z-shell">&#39;</span>.<span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-end z-shell">&#39;</span></span>.</span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">libtoolize:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> copying file <span class="z-string z-quoted z-single z-shell"><span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-begin z-shell">&#39;</span>./ltmain.sh<span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-end z-shell">&#39;</span></span></span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">libtoolize:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> putting macros in AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS, <span class="z-string z-quoted z-single z-shell"><span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-begin z-shell">&#39;</span>m4<span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-end z-shell">&#39;</span></span>.</span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">libtoolize:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> copying file <span class="z-string z-quoted z-single z-shell"><span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-begin z-shell">&#39;</span>m4/libtool.m4<span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-end z-shell">&#39;</span></span></span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">libtoolize:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> copying file <span class="z-string z-quoted z-single z-shell"><span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-begin z-shell">&#39;</span>m4/ltoptions.m4<span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-end z-shell">&#39;</span></span></span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">libtoolize:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> copying file <span class="z-string z-quoted z-single z-shell"><span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-begin z-shell">&#39;</span>m4/ltsugar.m4<span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-end z-shell">&#39;</span></span></span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">libtoolize:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> copying file <span class="z-string z-quoted z-single z-shell"><span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-begin z-shell">&#39;</span>m4/ltversion.m4<span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-end z-shell">&#39;</span></span></span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">libtoolize:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> copying file <span class="z-string z-quoted z-single z-shell"><span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-begin z-shell">&#39;</span>m4/lt~obsolete.m4<span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-string z-end z-shell">&#39;</span></span></span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">configure.ac:58:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> error: possibly undefined macro: AC_MSG_ERROR If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow. See the Autoconf documentation.</span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">autoreconf:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> error: /usr/bin/autoconf failed with exit status: 1</span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">Running</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> ./configure<span class="z-variable z-parameter z-option z-shell"><span class="z-punctuation z-definition z-parameter z-shell"> --</span>enable-maintainer-mode</span> ...</span> </span><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">configure:</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> error: cannot find required auxiliary files: compile missing install-sh config.guess config.sub</span> </span></code></pre> <p>That meant I needed an additional package:</p> <pre data-lang="bash" class="language-bash z-code"><code class="language-bash" data-lang="bash"><span class="z-source z-shell z-bash"><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-shell"><span class="z-variable z-function z-shell">sudo</span></span><span class="z-meta z-function-call z-arguments z-shell"> dnf install autoconf-archive</span> </span></code></pre> <p>After recompiling, I found out that my added shortcuts did not integrate properly. I filed an issue against the repo and am awaiting a response.</p> <section class="footnotes"> <ol class="footnotes-list"> <li id="fn-1"> <p>the prefix is to have a second, butchered version available to test. I can continue using distro version of AbiWord if this doesn't work out. <a href="#fr-1-1">↩</a></p> </li> </ol> </section>