about installing packages

Al Gordon runlevel7 at gmail.com
Tue Aug 2 16:30:29 UTC 2005


On 8/2/05, Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca> wrote:
> Brian Walker wrote:
> Ack!  Why?  I've tried asking a number of people about this, but _why_
> synaptic?  What does it provide that I would find I couldn't live without?
> I realize this is a predominantly Gnome-user list, so maybe you don't have
> other GUI options, but for the full GUI KPackage seems much more useful and
> for anything else it's aptitude.  When I first tried synaptic, it had the
> virtue of being really fast.  Then they added more features until it got to
> be as slow as kpackage. :-(

You gotta love chicken-and-egg problems.  If you need a KDE-based
installer, and you're on a Gnome-based system, which installer do you
use to install the installer? ;)

While all of the GUI-based solutions have their own strengths and
weaknesses, I still prefer to use the command line for installing
apps.

1. Search for a package using apt-cache search <name>
2. Find the correct package from the list.
3. Install using sudo apt-get install <package>

example:
apt-cache search xfig
sudo apt-get install xfig

The apt system will make sure that any supporting programs, libraries,
etc. are installed, and will prompt you with any questions, or if
there are conflicts.

If you need further info about any of the packages listed from doing
step 1, above, use "apt-cache show" (example: apt-cache show xfig).

-- 

  -- AL --




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