WordPerfect 8.1 for Linux - page 2
Revision 7.6
June 2026
Contents
The purpose and scope of this webpage
Summary of the script-based installation procedure
The operation of the scripts
Satisfying dependencies
Running the script
After running the script
Adding printers
The euro-currency symbol
Importing DOCX documents
Colour schemes
Menus, abbreviations and dialog boxes
Keypad keys
Other possibilities
Further assistance
The purpose and scope of this webpage
The present webpage (named "wp81script.htm") is intended for owners of original CDs containing the Standard or Deluxe edition of Corel Linux OS, which respectively include the Light or Personal Edition of WordPerfect 8.1 for Linux, with a view to enabling them to continue using their paid-for software on current distros.
References to "current distros" should be read as referring to April 2026 and beyond.
It is assumed that the reader is moderately familiar with Linux, and moderately experienced in using the current distro on which he wishes to install WordPerfect 8.1.
This is the second of three pages dealing with installing WordPerfect 8.1 on a current distro.
Accordingly, this webpage deals with installing WordPerfect 8.1 by means of the scripts written by the author of this website, designed to enable the installation of WordPerfect 8.1 on many current distros. It also deals with the running of WordPerfect 8.1 after installation.
The first of the three pages on this website (named "wp81gen.htm) deals with obtaining the WordPerfect 8.1 packages needed for installation, and with obtaining the relevant scripts. It also explains the need for, the course of development of, and the current status of, these scripts. It is assumed in the present page that the reader has familiarised himself with that page before examining this page.
The third of these pages (named "wp81else.htm") deals with attempting to install WordPerfect 8.1 manually on distros for which a suitable script is not available.
Summary of the script-based installation procedure
This page, "wp81script.htm", deals specifically with the installation of WordPerfect for Linux 8.1, by means of a script provided on this site, on a distro current in April 2026 or later.
There are separate scripts:
named wp81in.sh for debian-based distros;
named wp81in-fed.sh for Fedora or Mageia;
named wp81in-suse15.sh for OpenSUSE Leap 15;
named wp81in-slack.sh for Slackware;
named wp81in-manjaro.sh for Manjaro or CachyOS; and
named wp81in-pclos.sh for PCLinuxOS.
In most cases the scripts are now at version 2.4.
A script may be obtained via a link from the wp81gen page on this site, or from the following links:
wp81in.sh (for debian-based distros);
wp81in-fed.sh (for Fedora or Mageia);
wp81in-suse15.sh (for OpenSuse Leap 15);
wp81in-slack.sh (for Slackware);
wp81in-manjaro.sh (for Manjaro or CachyOS); and
wp81in-pclos.sh (for PCLinuxOS).
To download such a linked file in Firefox, you may right-click on the link, and then select "Save Link As..." from the resulting menu.
The procedure for installation of WordPerfect 8.1 for Linux by script involves the following steps, each of which is elaborated in a section below. These steps are:
(1) Obtain a copy of Corel Linux OS. This may be the Deluxe Edition, the Light Edition, or the Starter Edition.
This is dealt with in the wp81gen page on this site.
(2) Download a copy of the installation script designed for your distro from the above links, or those provided on the wp81gen page on this site.
(3) (a) In the case of a debian-based distro, or in Fedora, Mageia, OpenSUSE Leap, Manjaro or CachyOS, create as a normal user (not as root) a directory named /home/[username]/Downloads/wp-inst. (Substitute your actual username for [username].) This will serve as the working directory used by the scripts.
(b) But in the case of Slackware or PCLinuxOS, the working directory must be created as root and named /root/Downloads/wp-inst.
(4) Copy the WordPerfect core package and the relevant font package(s) obtained from the CLOS CD to the said working directory.
(5) Copy the installation script, downloaded from the wp81gen page on this site, to the said working directory.
(6) (a) In the case of a debian-based distro, or in Fedora, Mageia, OpenSUSE Leap 15, Manjaro or CachyOS, as a normal user (not as root), in a normal terminal window, from the said working directory, give the command:
sh ./wp81in.sh (in a debian-based distro), or
sh ./wp81in-fed.sh (in Fedora or Mageia), or
sh ./wp81in-suse15.sh (in OpenSUSE Leap 15), or
sh ./wp81in-manjaro.sh (in Manjaro or CachyOS).
The script will use “sudo” and request the user’s password when needed.
In the case of Mageia, you may need to have enabled the user to use “sudo” by adding him to the “wheel” group. To do this, give, in a root terminal, the command: usermod -a -G wheel [username]. See the Mageia wiki.
(b) But in the case of Slackware or PCLinuxOS, one must install as root. One must use "/root/Downloads/wp-inst" as the working directory, and from the working directory give the command: sh ./wp81in-slack.sh or sh ./wp81in-pclos.sh in a root terminal.
(7) Respond appropriately to requests for input by the script. For example, with regard to your "sudo" password, or to requests to authorise installation of packages from your distro's normal repositories.
In general each of the scripts will itself carry out the following steps.
(1) In the case of a 64-bit debian-based distro, it will ensure that the necessary i386 architecture is available.
(2) It will obtain and install the necessary support packages and libraries, by downloading from your distro's normal repository or from the present site.
(3) It will extract the code from relevant font packages, using the ar command from the binutils package, and then install it, using a command named installpkg15 renamed from the installpkg command from Slackware 15.
(4) It will extract the code from the main WordPerfect package, using the ar command from the binutils package, and then install it, using a command named installpkg15 renamed from the installpkg command from Slackware 15.
(The current scripts do not use the "alien" command to convert the deb packages to tarballs.)
(5) it will set up the installed fonts, so as to be recognised by WordPerfect and other installed programs.
(6) It will install a wrapper enabling use of the WordPerfect Print Manager to manage printers.
(7) It will endeavour to place a menu-link and icon for WordPerfect 8.1 in the Office folder of your main Linux menu, to enable you to run WordPerfect from the menu.
(8) It will endeavour to enable WordPerfect 8.1 to coexist better with an installation of WordPerfect 8.0 on the same partition. Such coexistence may be useful if difficulty is experienced in editing the style settings (especially "Initial Styles") in WordPerfect 8.1. There is no such difficulty in WordPerfect 8.0, and the style settings defined in WordPerfect 8.0 may be shared with WordPerfect 8.1.
(9) It will endeavour to ensure that, when invoked by /usr/bin/xwp, WordPerfect always uses its settings file, named .wp8x.set, which is located in the usual folder, named ~/.wprc/.
(10) All of the scripts (except scripts for Slackware) will install the cups-pdf package from the distro's normal repository, to enable printing to a PDF file from WordPerfect and other programs.
(11) All of the scripts (except scripts for Slackware) will install the pandoc package, to enable conversion of documents from .DOCX or .ODT format into .RTF format, for importation into WordPerfect.
(1) The wp-full and fonts packages declare dependency on libc6, libc5, xlib6g, and type1inst. The scripts will ensure that these dependencies are satisfied.
All the scripts now do so by downloading and installing a single support package named wp-utils, now at version 5.1, created by the present author, Peter Stone. This will be downloaded from "www.xwp8users.com/packages" as a debian package or as a tarball. It provides the facilities required by the dependencies on ldso, libc5, xlib6g and type1inst.
In the case of Manjaro or EndeavourOS, earlier (pre 2.3) versions of the relevant script used a distinct support package, in the form of a tarball named wp-utils-arch, is used instead of “wp-utils”. But a distinct package is no longer necessary for arch-based distros, and is no longer provided. However earlier (pre 5.1) versions of "wp-utils" should NOT be used on an arch-based distro.
The support package provides the necessary libc5 and locale files, and includes code from the old type1inst package, which creates a list of scalable fonts, and is needed to set up the WP fonts. The relevant libc5 files are placed in your "/lib" directory.
(2) The support package also includes a useful installation utility ("installpkg" from Slackware 15, renamed as installpkg15) used by the scripts; and a menu-link with an icon for WordPerfect.
(3) The support package also includes a "wrapper" which restores to life the WP Print Manager.
(4) The support package also includes a utility named padkeys, created by the present writer, which can set the numeric keypad to emulate the normal keypad. This is placed in "/usr/bin".
(5) The support package also includes a typographical font, adapted by the present writer, which includes the Euro-currency symbol. This consists of files named "wphv04n_.afm" and "wphv04n_.pfb", which are located in the "/opt/extras/eurosign" folder. After installation, you can activate this by copying the relevant files to your "/usr/lib/wp8/shlib10" directory.
(6) The support package also includes an HP postscript colour printer driver named hpc4600p, from the WPdos website, which may be useful for printing to CUPS and onwards to many HP colour printers (even where the printer is not a postscript printer). This is placed in your "/usr/lib/wp8/shlib10" directory.
(1) (a) In all cases except Slackware and PCLinuxOS, after you have copied the WordPerfect core package and font package(s) from the CLOS CD to the working directory, named "/home/[username]/Downloads/wp-inst", and copied the appropriate install script, downloaded from this page, into that directory, you can run the script, in a normal (non-root) terminal window, from that directory, by giving the command:
sh ./wp81in.sh (in a debian-based distro); or
sh ./wp81in-fed.sh (in Fedora or Mageia); or
sh ./wp81in-suse15.sh (in OpenSUSE Leap), or
sh ./wp81in-manjaro.sh (in Manjaro or CachyOS).
You should give the command as a normal user, without "sudo". The script will ask for your "sudo" password when it first encounters a "sudo" command.
(b) In the case of Slackware or PCLinuxOS, the procedure is slightly different. You must install as root, and use "/root/Downloads/wp-inst" as the working directory. You must give the command:
sh ./wp81in-slack.sh (in Slackware) or
sh ./wp81in-pclos.sh (in PCLinuxOS)
from that directory in a root terminal window.
(2) In all cases you should respond appropriately to requests for input by the script. For example, by confirming that the installation of a package from your normal repository should proceed.
The initial run of WordPerfect as root
After a script has terminated successfully with the message: "Enjoy!", you should load WordPerfect 8.1 once as a superuser.
This can be done, in a debian-based system, or in Fedora, Mageia, Manjaro, or CachyOS, by giving in a normal (non-root) terminal window the command: sudo xwp -adm.
It can be done in OpenSUSE Leap 15.6, by giving in a root terminal window, the command: xwp -adm. A root terminal window can be opened in OpenSUSE Leap 15.6 by giving in a normal terminal window the command: su (not "sudo su"). In OpenSUSE Leap 15.6 KDE, a root terminal can also be opened by means of the terminal-as-superuser command in the System folder in the KDE menu.
It can be done in Slackware or PCLinuxOS by giving in a root terminal window the command: xwp -adm.
Once within WordPerfect as a superuser, you should select Preferences, and then File Locking, and ensure that the option to “Disable Unix File locking” is switched on.
This should ensure that error messages referring to "too many processes", or to locked files, are not received.
Normal use of WordPerfect
Thereafter you should load WordPerfect 8.1 as a normal user, by giving in a normal (non-root) terminal window, the command: xwp.
In some cases you may also be able to load WordPerfect 8.1 from an entry thereto in the Office folder of your Linux menu.
At this stage WordPerfect has been installed. But no printer has been made available. Moreover, without a wrapper, the WP Print Manager, which is designed to add, modify and delete WordPerfect printer drivers, will not run in a current distro. To enable it to run, it must be called by way of a wrapper. A wrapper, suitable for recent distros (whether debian-based or rpm-based), has been devised by the present writer. I am grateful to DisneyDumbazz at youtube for suggesting this method.
The wrapper is automatically installed by the scripts. It works by installing "ld-2.27.so" (from libc6:i386 version 2.27) in your "/lib" directory, and a script named "xwppmgr" in your "/usr/bin" directory. The script is designed to use ld-2.27.so to access the libc5 utilities necessary to load the WP Manager.
To install a WP printer driver, the following procedure should be followed.
(1) First ensure that a Linux printer is installed on the distro; usually a CUPS printer. In some cases a CUPS printer recognised by your distro may not be recognised by the WordPerfect printer manager, and it may then be necessary to install manually another CUPS printer for use with WordPerfect.
To facilitate testing, the scripts for distros other than Slackware install the cups-pdf package from your normal repository. This enables printing to a PDF file.
(2) Then, in a debian-based distro, or in Fedora, Mageia, Manjaro, or CachyOS, give, in a normal terminal window, the command: sudo xwppmgr. This should load the WP Print Manager using the wrapper, and thus enable you to install a WP printer driver. Thereafter you will then be able to make that driver available as a user by using the print command within WordPerfect.
In OpenSUSE Leap 15.6, you should give, in a root terminal window, the command: xwppmgr. A root terminal window may be opened by giving the command su (not "sudo su") in a normal terminal window. Alternatively, in OpenSUSE Leap 15 KDE only, you may give, in a normal (non-root) terminal window, the command: kdesu xwppmgr.
In Slackware or PCLinuxOS, you should give the command: xwppmgr, in a root terminal window.
(3) A tutorial on using the WP Print Manager, once it has been loaded using the wrapper, kindly contributed by Leon Goldstein, is provided on the Tutorial page.
If you have a monochrome printer, or do not wish to print in colour with WordPerfect, the Passthru Postscript driver, supplied as part of WordPerfect, pointed to the Linux CUPS driver for your printer, should work well.
If you have a colour printer, you may find it useful to use the HP Color LaserJet 4600 (Postscript) driver, devised for Edward Mendelson's WPdos website, and available on its page entitled "New Printer Drivers for WordPerfect 6.x". This driver, named hpc4600p.prs, is included in the wp-utils package used by the installation scripts provided at the present site, and installed in the "/usr/lib/wp8/shlib10" directory. Thus it is among the drivers available for installation. This driver should work well with a colour printer, even if it is not postscript capable, so long as the CUPS driver, at which the WP driver is pointed, is suitable for the physical printer.
(4) If you cannot get the wrapper to work, you may still be able to use WordPerfect to create and edit documents. In that case there are several possible workarounds for printing your WordPerfect document.
(a) The simplest workaround is to use LibreOffice Writer. You can load the WordPerfect document into LibreOffice Writer, and print it from LibreOffice Writer.
To ensure that LibreOffice can access the Type1 fonts used by WordPerfect for Linux, the fonts should be copied from "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1" into "/usr/share/fonts/type1".
(b) An alternative method of printing a WordPerfect document is to save the file in WordPerfect (to a different filename) as a postscript file. Then rename the output file to have a ".ps" extension. Finally load the ".ps" file into Oracle, and print it from Oracle.
WordPerfect 8.0 and 8.1 for Linux were released before the introduction of the euro currency, and do not directly support the euro-currency symbol: "€".
But it is possible in WordPerfect 8.0 and 8.1 for Linux to view the symbol on screen, and to print the symbol using a WordPerfect postscript driver, if one uses an amended version of the WordPerfect 8 font files for typographical symbols, wphv04n_.pfb and wphv04n_.afm. The necessary amendment involves replacing the glyph for a "u" in a circle, located at 4,72, by a glyph for the euro symbol, copied from another suitable font. The glyph to be copied should have a width of 500.
Such amended font files have been created by the present author, using the FontForge program, and a glyph taken from "n022003l.pbf", a Nimbus type1 font which may be present on a current Linux installation in the "/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts" directory. The symbol appears at position 395 in the Nimbus font.
The amended font, created by the present writer, is included in the wp-utils package, which is available from the present site and is installed by the scripts designed to install WordPerfect 8.0 and 8.1. The amended font files, named wphv04n_.pfb and wphv04n_.afm, are installed by the package into the /opt/extras/eurosign directory.
You can activate the amended font in WordPerfect 8.1 by copying the two amended files to your /usr/lib/wp8/shlib10 directory, so as to overwrite the original WP 8.1 font files with the same names. (In WordPerfect 8.0, the files should be copied into the "/opt/wp8/shlib10" directory.)
Once the amended font is thus activated, the euro-currency symbol will be available as character 4,72.
DOCX documents, in current Microsoft Word format, cannot be imported directly in WordPerfect 8.0 or 8.1. Conversion into an acceptable format is necessary. This can be achieved by use of the pandoc utility, which is installed from your distro's normal repository by all of the scripts (except the scripts for Slackware) supplied on the present site for installing WordPerfect 8.0 or 8.1.
Documentary file formats
WPD format is the document format native to WordPerfect. It is associated with the file extension: ".wpd". The current version of WPD format is 6.1. This version was introduced in 1994 as part of WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows, and has remained unchanged thereafter. It is used in all subsequent versions of WordPerfect for Windows, including versions 12 and X3, as well as in WordPerfect 6.1 and 6.2 for DOS, and WordPerfect 8.0 and 8.1 for Linux.
An earlier version of the WPD format, version 5.1, is used in WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS, and WordPerfect 8c for Linux. But WordPerfect 5.1+ for DOS and WordPerfect 8c for Linux can import, convert and export documents in WPD 6.1 format.
DOCX is the document format native to Microsoft Word for Windows. It is associated with the extension: ".docx". It was introduced as part of Microsoft Word for Windows 2007, and is used in subsequent versions of Microsoft Word for Windows. It replaced the DOC format which was used natively by earlier versions of Microsoft Word, including Word for Windows 2003. The DOCX format is the one most widely used in 2006 for transferring editable documents to colleagues or friends.
ODT is the document format native to LibreOffice Writer. It is associated with the extension: ".odt".
Importation
Neither WordPerfect 8.0, 8.1 or 8c for Linux, nor WordPerfect 12 or X3 for Windows, can open DOCX or ODT documents directly for editing.
(DOC documents, from Word 2003 or earlier, can be opened directly in WordPerfect 12 or X3 for Windows, but not in WordPerfect 8.0, 8.1 or 8c for Linux. This is unimportant, since DOC files will rarely be met in 2026.)
It is therefore important for users of WordPerfect on Linux to be able to convert DOCX or ODT documents, which may have been received as attachments to emails from friends or colleagues, into a format which can be opened in WordPerfect, so that they can be converted and edited in WordPerfect.
Fortunately, there is a simple method available for such conversion. It involves use of the pandoc command provided by the "pandoc" package. This package will be installed from your distro's normal repository by the all the scripts available from the present site which install WordPerfect 8.0 or 8.1, except the scripts for Slackware. For Slackware, you will need to obtain the "pandoc" package from a repository or from pandoc's own website.
Then, in a terminal, you should change directory to the folder containing the DOCX or ODT file which is to be converted, and give the following command:
pandoc [myfile].docx -s -o [myfile].rtf (in the case of DOCX file)
or
pandoc [myfile].odt -s -o [myfile].rtf (in the case of and ODT file).
(For [myfile] substitute the actual filename.) This will create by conversion an RTF file which can be opened, converted, and edited in WordPerfect 8 or 12, and then saved in WPD format.
The conversion will be good, but not perfect. In particular, footnotes will become endnotes, and text marked as inserted will simply appear as text, without colouration and redlining.
Exportation
A converse issue can arise if you have created or edited a WPD file in WordPerfect, and wish to send it to a friend or colleague who may be using software which cannot open a document in WPD format. This is not very likely, since currently both MS Word for Windows and LibreOffice Writer can open a WPD document for editing.
But if you need or wish to convert the file to DOCX or ODT format, perhaps to avoid confusing the intended recipient, this can easily be achieved by opening the WPD file in LibreOffice Writer, and saving it as a DOCX or ODT file.
If you want to use your own colour settings in WordPerfect for Linux on a recent KDE distro, you may need to alter the KDE system settings by disabling the option: "Apply colors to non-KDE4 Applications".
To do this, load System Settings, then Application Appearance, then Colors, then Options. Then switch off the relevant option. You may need to log out and in again to make the WP colours effective.
Unfortunately the said option is not readily available in recent versions of KDE (including the version used in Kubuntu 20.04). But it can be exercised by creating a text file, named "kcmdisplayrc", containing the following lines:
"[X11]
exportKDEColors=false".
The file should be placed in "home/[user]/.config".
This problem does not arise if you use Mate (instead of KDE) as your window manager.
Menus, abbreviations and dialog boxes
WordPerfect for Linux (unlike some later versions of WordPerfect for Windows) does not enable you to edit its menus. But an additional menu can be created by means of a suitable macro, and this can then be added to the button-bar.
Abbreviations can also be created by means of the QuickCorrect function.
If the menus and dialog boxes are too small for comfort, they can be enlarged by the addition to the xwp command-line of a parameter such as "-fontSize 20".
You may find that the Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, Ins, Del and arrow keys on the numeric keypad do not work in WordPerfect for Linux.
So a script, named padkeys, has been created by the present writer. The script is designed to set the numeric Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, Ins, Del and arrow keys to emulate the normal Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, Ins, Del and arrow keys. It is included in the wp-utils package available on this site, which installs it in "/usr/bin". It may not work well on all keyboards.
Other versions of WordPerfect for Linux are considered on the versions page. More specifically, version 8.0 is considered on the WordPerfect 8.0 page.
The use on Linux of a version of WordPerfect for Windows, or WordPerfect for MSDOS, through a compatibility layer, are considered on the emulation page.
The author of this site, Peter Stone, may be contacted by email as "peter@xwp8users.com".
Last updated in June 2026.
(c) Peter Stone, 2026.