linux newbie

[Martin Schmeisser]

Am Donnerstag, den 25.08.2005, 19:17 +0200 schrieb Praveen Kumar:
> hi,
> 
> am sorry to ask such a stupid question.. but i have downloaded a lot
> of programs.... those that have *.deb extentions.... now how do i
> install them? when i double click on them... it opens using the
> archive manager ... thereafter what should i do?
> 
> thanks a lot
> praveen
> 

Hi, 

just dont open them with the archive manager. Open a Terminal and type

`cd /directory/with/a/deb`

and

`ls` to see if you are in the right place ( this lists the directory
contents)

and finally

`sudo dpkg -i nameofyourprogram.deb`

this will ask you for your password, supply it and watch your new
program getting installed.

The Terminal is located in Applications -> System Tools in your menu,
the commands are to be entered without the `s.

NOTE : This is a way of intalling programms. However the better way is
to Open System -> System Administration -> Synaptic Package management
because this will also install any additional software that your new
program needs, just klick the search button to look for your software.

Also, Synaptic is much safer because it installs known to work and known
to be reasonably safe debs. 

If you cant find your proggie there see
http://www.ubuntuguide.org/#extrarepositories

http://www.ubuntuguide.org/ is a good page anyways for any kind of probs

cheers, Hope that helped, Martin