When comparing Debian GNU/Linux vs Puppy Linux, the Slant community recommends Debian GNU/Linux for most people. Games and development tools. It comes with over 37,500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. Apt or apt-build to install software from the Debian package. If you also prefer Chrome, visit and download the DEB file for Ubuntu. Double-click it and install it — you can then open Chrome and log into Chrome sync with your Google account details. The Linux version of Chrome supports web apps, extensions, and all the other good stuff the Windows version supports.
- Install Deb Package Puppy Linux Games Online
- Puppy Linux Install To Usb
- Install Deb Package Linux Mint
How do I install a .deb
file via the command line?
10 Answers
Packages are manually installed via the dpkg
command (Debian Package Management System). dpkg
is the backend to commands like apt-get
and aptitude
, which in turn are the backend for GUI install apps like the Software Center and Synaptic.
Something along the lines of:
Install Deb Package Puppy Linux Games Online
dpkg
-->apt-get
, aptitude
--> Synaptic, Software Center
But of course the easiest ways to install a package would be, first, the GUI apps (Synaptic, Software Center, etc..), followed by the terminal commands apt-get
and aptitude
that add a very nice user friendly approach to the backend dpkg, including but not limited to packaged dependencies, control over what is installed, needs update, not installed, broken packages, etc.. Lastly the dpkg
command which is the base for all of them.
Since dpkg is the base, you can use it to install packaged directly from the command line.
Install a package
For example if the package file is called askubuntu_2.0.deb
then you should do sudo dpkg -i askubuntu_2.0.deb
. If dpkg
reports an error due to dependency problems, you can run sudo apt-get install -f
to download the missing dependencies and configure everything. If that reports an error, you'll have to sort out the dependencies yourself by following for example How do I resolve unmet dependencies after adding a PPA?.
Remove a package
For example if the package is called askubuntu
then you should do sudo dpkg -r askubuntu
.
Reconfigure an existing package
This is useful when you need to reconfigure something related to said package. Some useful examples it the keyboard-configuration
when you want to enable the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace in order to reset the X server, so you would the following:
Another great one is when you need to set the Timezone for a server or your local testing computer, so you use use the tzdata
package:
Debian (.deb) packages are the packages that are used in Ubuntu. You can install any .deb package in your system. .deb files can generally be installed from your file manager (Nautilus) merely by clicking on them, since file associations with the default installer is already set in Ubuntu. These instructions are for those who wish to install packages from the command-line terminal (Terminal).
To install a downloaded Debian (Ubuntu) package (.deb): Open Terminal and type
To remove a Debian (Ubuntu) package (.deb):
To Reconfigure/Repair an installed Debian (Ubuntu) package (.deb):
Atul MakwanaAtul MakwanaMy favourite is GDebi, available from both terminal/shell or graphical desktop.
I usually associate .deb
files with GDebi as it is fast and efficient - especially compared to Ubuntu Software Center. One of the main feature of GDebi is it resolves dependencies and installs them.
For command-line run sudo gdebi <package.deb>
to install a single deb file.
Are you looking for all dpkg commands? click this link to have a read.
There are two actions, they are dpkg-query
and dpkg-deb
.
Install a package
Remove a package
Remove a package and its configuration files
List all installed packages.
You can pipe the command to less
(a pager) so you can more easily scroll the content:
Check if the package is installed or not
Check if the package is installed or not, and if it is, launch it:
See whether a package is installed or not
And this will show the location where the package will be installed.Here -S
(capital S
) to search whether the package was installed or not.
Install a *.deb package from a specified location
Here -R
is recursive. (Recursively handle all regular files matching the pattern *.deb
found at specified directories and all of its subdirectories).
Show package details
Here -p
(lowercase p
) will show the package info:
View the content of a package
Use -c
(lowercase c
) to show the content:
Extract the *.deb
package file
Use -x
(lowercase x
) to extract:
Extract and display the filenames contained in a package
Use -X
(uppercase X
) to display the content with extraction.
Display information about a package
Here -I
stands for information:
Puppy Linux Install To Usb
Reconfigure an already installed package
dpkg-reconfigure
reconfigures packages after they already have been installed. Pass it the name(s) of a package or packages to reconfigure. It will ask configuration questions, much like when the package was first installed.
This will reconfigure postfix
the same way as when you installed it for the first time.
Need to know more about dpkg
commands? Have a look at the manual page:
While dpkg -i
indeed installs the package, it doesn't do any automatic dependency resolution, meanwhile there are two other alternatives, using gdebi, or the apt-get tool. To use the later just use:
Even if you are on the directory with the package you need to give a path using ./
at the start:
A handy tip when installing a program like Libreoffice which has multiple .deb files in a folder is to use.
Here's the best way to install a .deb file on Ubuntu on the command-line:
If you don't have gdebi
installed already, install it using sudo apt install gdebi-core
.
gdebi
will look for all the dependencies of the .deb
file, and will install them before attempting to install the .deb
file. I find this much preferable than sudo dpkg -i skype.deb && sudo apt install -f
. The latter is much too eager to remove dependencies in certain situations. For instance, when I tried to install Skype, it attempted to remove 96 (!) packages, including packages like compiz
and unity
! gdebi
gave a much clearer error message:
(Here is the solution to that particular issue, by the way.)
Create your own script installer debInstaller
as the following:
Make the script executable with
Then move it to some dirs in your PATH or add the current directory to your PATH.
I'm going to move it to /usr/bin
Now you can install any .deb
package using the command:
The added value of this method is the solving the dependencies problem, since mostly you'll face some problems when you install a .deb
with dpkg -i
due to dependencies error, so you have to use apt-get install -f
to solve it, this script will do the job for you, but here I used apt-get --yes --fix-broken install
to automatically solve these errors without user intervention.
To install deb files, open Terminal and type:
The second line is to fix broken packages if the installation fails, then, install again to complete the installation.
Another approach is to use gdebi
tool to install deb files.
There are many tools to install a deb packageI personally use built-in package installer dpkg
If you are logged as rootchange the directory to location of deb package
if you are not logged as root
To make sure that package installed correctly and didn't have any broken dependencies
If there are any broken dependencies
protected by Community♦Feb 20 '14 at 20:57
Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged command-linesoftware-installationdpkgdeb or ask your own question.
Whether you use a Debian based Linux distribution such as Debian, Ubuntu, Mint or SolyDX, or you use a Red Hat based Linux distribution such as Fedora or CentOS the way that applications are installed onto your computer are the same.
The physical method for installing the software might be different. For example, the graphical tools in Ubuntu are the Software Centre and Synaptic whereas in Fedora there is YUM Extender and openSUSE uses Yast. Command line tools include apt-get for Ubuntu and Debian or yum for Fedora and zypper for openSUSE.
The one thing they all have in common is the fact that the applications packaged up to make them easier to install.
Debian based distributions utilize the .deb package format whereas Red Hat based distributions utilize rpm packages. There are many other different package types available but in general, they work in a similar way.
What Are Repositories?
A software repository contains software packages.
When you search via the Software Centre or use a tool like apt-get or yum you are shown a list of all the packages within the repositories available to your system.
A software repository can store its files on one server or across many different servers known as mirrors.
How to Install Packages
The easiest way to find packages is through the graphical tools provides by your distribution's package manager.
Install Deb Package Linux Mint
The graphical tools help you resolve dependency issues and to validate that the installation has worked correctly.
If you prefer to use the command line or you are using a headless server (i.e. there is no desktop environment/window manager) then you can use command line package managers.
It is, of course, possible to install individual packages. Within Debian based distributions you can use the dpkg command to install .deb files. Within Red Hat based distributions you can simply use the rpm command.
What's in a Package?
To see the contents of a Debian package you can open it in archive manager. The files contained within a package are as follows:
- Control
- Data
- Debian-binary
The Debian-binary file contains the Debian format version number and the contents are almost always set to 2.0.
The control file is generally a zipped up tar file. The contents of the control file define the important features of the package as follows:
- Package Name
- Version Number
- Architecture
- Maintainer
- Installed-Size
- Dependencies
- Section (i.e. graphics)
- Priority
- Homepage
- Description
The data file which is also a zipped up tar file provides a folder structure for the package. All the files in the data file are expanded to the relevant folder in the Linux system.
How Can You Create Packages
To create a package you need to have something that you want to deliver in a packaged format.
A developer may have created source code which works under Linux but which isn't currently packaged for your version of Linux. In this instance, you may wish to create a Debian package or RPM package.
Alternatively, maybe you are the developer and you wish to make packages for your own software. In the first instance, you need to compile the code and make sure it works but the next step is to create the package.
Not all packages require source code. For instance, you might create a package containing wallpaper images of Scotland or a specific icon set.