Where do I make these changes?

[Scott Henson]

Barry Young wrote:

> Scott, thank you.
>
> I see it now..  WOW!
>
> I am assuming that you will have to do some manual installs?  If so 
> how are these done?
>
> I find a package that isn't in the list, but has a tar file, and I 
> download it.  Do these type of apps usually have the instructions, or 
> does Ubuntu have a method to install these apps.
>

There have been very few times that Ive had to install a package that 
wasn't in Ubuntu.  Normally these are fringe packages that don't work 
very well anyway(meaning alpha quality software or early beta).  You 
should add multiverse to your repository list before you install a 
package from source( thats ussually whats in the tar file). 

To answer your next question, yes and yes.  These apps ussually come 
with instructions in a file called INSTALL or README.  But there are 
also ways to install this stuff in a way that Ubuntu's package 
management system will know about it.  One is called checkinstall(Ive 
never used it but I hear good things about it).  The next way is called 
alien.  If you find an rpm or some such that the app is already packaged 
in, alien is your friend.  The final way(the hardest) is to make a 
Ubuntu package(these end in .deb).  This requires some special knowledge 
and can be very error prone. 

I guess the best piece of advice for installing software not included in 
Ubuntu is not to.  It makes things far easier if you never do that.  If 
you really can't avoid it, try finding someone who has already made a 
deb.  If all else fails install the software into your home directory, 
/opt, or /usr/local.  These places keep the Ubuntu package management 
system from steping on it. 

As always, only install software from trusted sources.

> Again thanks for your help!
>
Your welcome, any time.