* William Bradley (bradleyw@magma.ca) [030914 18:44]: > Thank you to everyone who responded to the above. So far I have simply > downloaded the deb file and haven't an idea how to install it. Been playing > with dpkg and dselect but it still sits there doing nothing. > > Subsequent messages have shown me how to get and install it online but I would > still like to know how to do it as a package on the system. Let me guess ... an ex-redhat user? ;-) To install a deb that sits on your filesystem, you can use 'dpkg -i filename.deb'. You hardly ever do that on a debian system, though (unless you're compiling your own debs, for example a kernel package or something). Generally, you use a frontend to manage package selection from a proper package repository, be that on an http server somewhere (like an online debian mirror) or a cdrom, or a mix of a few of those. This way, you get a number of advantages. First, you don't have to go hunting for the package to download. You let apt fetch it for you. Second, you don't have to worry about dependencies. I remember from my redhat days (the bad old days) spending lots of time downloading rpms and trying to install them, only to find out I needed to download yet more rpms, which in turn depended on yet other rpms. This "rpm hell" was one of the biggest reasons I switched to debian. Debian's package management tools are way ahead of anything redhat uses, and they take care of all of the dependencies for you. (Of course, this is really a feature of the well-maintained packages in the distribution rather than of the package management tools themselves.) good times, Vineet -- http://www.doorstop.net/ -- One nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty, and justice for all.
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