ihave ubuntu 7.04 and i can't install any programms from the terminal wat can i do to stop having this problem. i alsodont have an internet connection to do it with the synaptic package manager if i'm right and also from where could i download programs for ubuntu please help me because i like linux and i want to use it more often

Programs for Linux come in different formats. Some of them are source code that you have to compile. Others come in an archive file that you extract. Still others come in a format that is intended to be used by your distribution's package manager. Lastly some might just be a single file that you can run in the form that it was given to you. The instructions for installing the software that you have depend on which of these formats you have. Let us know the following:

What is the name of the software? (Evolution, Castle Wolfenstein, Gnu Privacy Guard, ...?)

Where did you get it? (Internet address, friend, CD-ROM in a magazine ...?)

What is the name of the file that contains the software? (abc.rpm, abc.tgz, abc.tar.gz ...?)

Once we know these things then it will be easier to help you.

Synaptic is a just a graphical interface to the same system which you use from the command line (apt). If using synaptic to install a program is a problem because you do not have an internet connection, using apt on the command line will not help you - it will still need to use the internet connection.

You can download Ubuntu .deb files and install them (just open then in the file manager, Nautilus, and it will open the installer). However, this is worse than using synaptic/apt, since you will have to download dependencies manually if there are any...

Yes, to open certain files in Ubuntu can by an adventure.
I just downloaded some music and when I opened the torrent
there appeared a file with the Gnome Logo and a map with tar.gz
extension. Now I haven't the slightest idea how to procede.
Einar

If you don't have an internet connection on this computer, but have access on a different one somewhere, you could try looking into a program called apt-zip. I can't provide instructions as I've never used it myself, but it is intended for this sort of situation, I think.

To install software the easy way in Ubuntu without Synaptic/internet connection: download the preferred software in (Ubuntu-specific, if possible) .deb files, and remember to find and download all .deb packages that you need (to install a program you may need to install another packages so that program can be installed at all; "dependencies"). After you have those .deb files, open your favourite file manager (Nautilus on Gnome, for example) and double-click on the files to install them - that's how it should work. From command line you use 'dpkg' to do this:
If you have downloaded a .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2 or such file, you can't install it by double-clicking; the file is a (possibly compressed) archive. Like .zip files are compressed archives. So they contain the files; first step is to extract the contents to a directory (right-click -> extract), then see what that directory contains. Usually there are INSTALL and README files, and those files tell you specifically how to deal with that specific package; read the files and you know what to do.

With no Internet connection I would suggest a Distro where you can get all the packages on CD or DVD, then you can install from the media you have on hand.. Debian comes to mind with it's 3 DVD's full of software, that you can install pretty much anything available using Synaptic.. (what is it now, like 17-20,000 packages in Debian ? ) http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/.../i386/iso-dvd/

This will also help you avoid dependency issues, where you want to install package A, but it requires you also to locate the right versions of package B, C, D, E, & F. after you locate and download those you find out they depend on packages X, Y, & Z as well... how painful that is to manually locate and download. much easier when all of that is on your media set for off-line install.

For Ubuntu you should also be able to install software from the DVD using Synaptic, but Ubuntu doesn't have as much software readily available on the install media. To access all the available Ubuntu software you need Internet access.