Build Collabora Office

This is the Collabora Office Linux Desktop app built on Qt6 WebEngine.

Dependencies

Fedora

Tested on Fedora 43.

sudo dnf install autoconf automake cppunit-devel fontconfig-devel gcc gcc-c++ \
    git libcap-devel libpng-devel libtool libzstd-devel make npm openssl-devel \
    pam-devel perl-JSON-PP pkgconf-pkg-config poco-devel python3-lxml \
    python3-polib qt6-linguist qt6-qtbase-devel qt6-qtwebengine-devel

Ubuntu

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

sudo apt install -y autoconf automake build-essential cmake fontconfig git \
    libcap-dev libcppunit-dev libpam0g-dev libpng-dev libssl-dev libtool \
    libzstd-dev npm pkg-config python3-lxml python3-polib qt6-base-dev \
    qt6-tools-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools qt6-webengine-dev

Poco from source

Ubuntu 24.04 ships Poco 1.11.0, but Collabora Office requires 1.12.0 or newer. Build it from source:

wget https://github.com/pocoproject/poco/archive/refs/tags/poco-1.14.2-release.tar.gz
tar xzf poco-1.14.2-release.tar.gz
cd poco-poco-1.14.2-release
mkdir cmake-build && cd cmake-build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local
make -j $(nproc)
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
cd ../..

Debian

Tested on Debian 13 (Trixie).

sudo apt install -y autoconf automake build-essential fontconfig git \
    libcap-dev libcppunit-dev libpam0g-dev libpng-dev libpoco-dev libssl-dev \
    libtool libzstd-dev npm pkg-config python3-lxml python3-polib \
    qt6-base-dev qt6-tools-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools qt6-webengine-dev

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -Syu autoconf automake base-devel cppunit fontconfig \
    git libcap libpng libtool npm openssl pam perl-json-pp pkgconf poco \
    python-lxml python-polib qt6-base qt6-tools qt6-webengine zstd

openSUSE

Tested on openSUSE Leap 16.0.

PYVER=$(python3 -c 'import sys; print(f"python{sys.version_info.major}{sys.version_info.minor}")')
sudo zypper install autoconf automake cppunit-devel fontconfig-devel gcc-c++ \
    git libcap-devel libopenssl-devel libpng16-compat-devel libpng16-devel \
    libtool libzstd-devel make npm-default pam-devel pkgconf poco-devel \
    ${PYVER}-lxml ${PYVER}-polib qt6-base-devel qt6-tools-linguist \
    qt6-webenginecore-devel qt6-webenginewidgets-devel

General notes

A C++ compiler with full C++20 support is required, including std::format (GCC 13+ or Clang 17+).

Poco >= 1.12.0 is required. Some distros ship an older version – see the Ubuntu section for building from source.

Building

LibreOffice Core

Collabora Office needs core to be built. See detailed instructions if needed.

git clone --depth 1 -b distro/collabora/co-26.04 https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/core
cd core

./autogen.sh --with-distro=CPLinux-LOKit --without-package-format --with-system-nss
make

For debug builds, add --enable-dbgutil to the autogen line.

Once done, set the path for the online build:

export LOCOREPATH=$(pwd)

Collabora Online

git clone https://github.com/CollaboraOnline/online.git collabora-online
cd collabora-online

./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-qtapp \
    --with-lo-path=${LOCOREPATH}/instdir \
    --with-lokit-path=${LOCOREPATH}/include \
    --enable-debug
make -j $(nproc)

Ubuntu: if you built Poco from source, add --with-poco-includes=/usr/local/include --with-poco-libs=/usr/local/lib to configure.

This produces the coda-qt executable in qt/.

Running

./qt/coda-qt                         # start without a document
./qt/coda-qt ../test/data/hello.odt  # open a file

Debug with Chromium DevTools

export QTWEBENGINE_REMOTE_DEBUGGING=3311

Then run coda-qt and open http://localhost:3311

Flatpak

Install the runtimes:

flatpak install org.kde.Sdk//6.10 \
                org.kde.Platform//6.10 \
                org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.node20//25.08 \
                io.qt.qtwebengine.BaseApp//6.10

Build and export to a local repo:

flatpak-builder --repo=repo --force-clean --ccache build-dir \
    qt/flatpak/com.collaboraoffice.Office.json

Create a .flatpak bundle from the repo:

flatpak build-bundle repo CollaboraOffice.flatpak com.collaboraoffice.Office

Or install directly from the repo:

flatpak --user remote-add --no-gpg-verify --if-not-exists co-local repo
flatpak --user install co-local com.collaboraoffice.Office

Debug symbols

To include debug symbols in the build, add --keep-build-dirs and export the debug extension:

flatpak-builder --repo=repo --force-clean --ccache --keep-build-dirs build-dir \
    qt/flatpak/com.collaboraoffice.Office.json
flatpak build-bundle repo CollaboraOffice.Debug.flatpak \
    com.collaboraoffice.Office.Debug --runtime

If you just want a pre-built package instead of compiling, download the Collabora Office Linux Flatpak snapshots here: 👉 https://www.collaboraoffice.com/downloads/Collabora-Office-Linux-Snapshot/