[KLUG Members] recommended office suite

[members@kalamazoolinux.org]

>How quickly I get out of my depth; should have posted in the newbie list.
>How would I know whether the partition is mounted w/out an exec option?

type "mount"

My CD looks like -
/dev/hdb on /mnt/cdrom1 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,user=adam)

hence I can't "run" a program from the CD, ever, the kernel will just slap me
down if I try.  This prevents end-users from introducing executable code into
the system.  On production systems /home is usually mounted this way as well.

To change look in /etc/fstab and find the line for your CD -
/dev/cdrom              /mnt/cdrom              iso9660
noauto,nosuid,noexec,user,nodev,owner,ro 0 0

Change noexec to exec.

Or use the proper UNIX method.  Copy everything off the CD to a subdir in, say,
/tmp and perform the install from there.  That way you don't run a process of a
potentially flakey device (CD). If the CD-ROM goes wiggy and the process (whose
cwd will be on the CD) hangs because there is an I/O error on your $1.50 CD you
won't be able to unmount the CD because it is "busy" due to the process hung
because of your crappy CD. :)  It happens.  Don't risk uptime because of a $1.50
CD.  If the copy from the CD fails cp will just dump out to the command line, 
and you know your CD is crap without anything else being bothered.