is it indeed difficult to install a program in feisty fawn?

[Andrew Jarrett]

On 6/20/07, dicky s <woi_dik at yahoo.com> wrote:
> hi all.. i am so glad that many member put comments in
> my previous question. i tried your every
> suggestions,but no one worked. let me figure out what
> actually happened : i inserted the cd,i clicked the cd
> icon in desktop,it opened,then i found the setup file
> (a look-like-gear icon) and click it,an open with..
> window showed,i chose adept manager,entered my
> password,clicked ok, but nothing happened,adept never
> ran.linux ran as if i did nothing before.. the same
> condition exist if i chose adept installer.

Welcome to the "Wonderful World of Kubuntu: The Place Where All of
Your Dreams (Especially Those in Close Relation to Linux / Alternative
Operating Systems to the Microsoft Windows Platform and / or the Apple
Platform) Will Come True!" (c) Canonical 2009.

Some basic info about how installing programs in Kubuntu works:
Installing programs is a completely different process in Kubuntu than
it is in Windows.  Don't let this frighten you though -- once you get
the hang of it, I think you will find that it is a much easier process
than installing programs in Windows.  Kubuntu is based off of a linux
distribution called "Debian."  In both Debian and Kubuntu (and other
distributions that are based off of Debian) the programs are
"packaged" into .deb files.  To install these programs, though, you
don't want to click on the .deb or even download it from the program's
website.  You are going to use a program (i.e. Adept) to connect to
the internet (so make sure you are connected before you try installing
anything) and that program will handle all of the installation
mumbo-jumbo for you.  Adept (and other "package managers") use a
configuration file that tells them where to look for certain
"repositories" of programs.  Repositories are websites that (usually)
have a large collection of software.  These repositories are already
setup when you install Kubuntu, but when you open Adept, you will want
to make sure that the two checkboxes opposite the search box are
checked (forgot what they say -- something like "Proprietary" or
"Universe" or "Restricted").  The ease of this type of system is that
if you need a program, you can look around at all the different
software that you can install through Adept instead of searching the
depths of the internet and then installing the program manually.  And,
of course, if there are some certain programs (probably very few) that
you want that aren't listed in Adept, you can add another repository
that has the program you want to your configuration file.  Its all
very simple -- it is just different and, therefore, a little more
challenging at the "this is my first installation of Linux" phase.

To install firefox:
1. Open Adept: Click of the "K" at the bottom left corner of the
screen.  This pulls up the "K menu".  Find the entry in the menu that
says "Add/Remove Programs" and click it.
2. Enter your password:  A box should pop up asking for your user
password.  Enter the same password that you use to log on to the
machine.
3. Adept should come up:  Use the search box in the upper left of the
window to search for "firefox".  Also, while you're in Adept, make
sure to check the two checkboxes that are on the opposite side of the
search box.  This will expand the list of software that you can
install to programs that aren't maintained directly by the (k)ubuntu
developers.
4. Mark Firefox for installation: Firefox should show up in the middle
of the window after you hit enter to search for it.  To the left of
Firefox, make sure that you check the checkbox.  This will tell Adept
that you want to install Firefox.  At this point, you can find some
more software you want to install, or you can tell adept to "Apply
Changes".
5. Apply Changes: When you are ready to install all of the programs
you want, then click on the button in the lower right hand side of the
window that says something like "Apply Changes".  This will do all the
magic for you -- all you have to do is wait for it to finish.
6. Quit or browse for more software:  Adept will tell you when it is
finished installing.  You can choose to exit or you can browse for
more software.  At this point, Firefox will have been installed and it
is ready to use -- no need to restart.

Hope this helps!
Andrew

P.S. There are many more ways to install programs in Kubuntu, but this
is probably the best way for someone new to linux.  I like to use the
commandline to install programs -- it is a little bit faster, but you
need to know what to type ("sudo apt-get install program_name").  FYI,
Adept is called a "frontend" for apt-get which means that it is a
graphical user interface (or "window") that runs on top of the
command-line program named apt-get.  There are other frontends for
apt-get that you can use like Synaptic (the default package manager
used in the gnome version of Ubuntu).

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