I've been trying to install programs in general on Debian and have been meeting with significant trouble. Specifically, I'm trying to install an HTML editor, and there are none at all in Synaptic. I tried to install Nvu, but I have no idea what to do once I download the data and unpackage it. I tried running the config script, but it didn't do anything that I could observe. Basically, I need either a reference to a download repository for Synaptic (and instructions on how to set it up) or instructions on how to get downloaded programs to install.

Thanks

What does your /etc/apt/sources.lst look like?

Well, I just found out recently (from rickh) that NVU is no longer in the Debian repos. It can be installed manually, though. You can install a non-supported deb from the NVU site here:

http://www.nvu.com/download/nvu-1.0.ubuntu.5.04.deb

Or a tarball from here:

http://cvs.nvu.com/download/nvu-1.0-...10-gnu.tar.bz2

Ok, so I downloaded it, but now what do I do? I'm VERY new to linux.

Also, /etc/apt/sources.list is:
#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Etch_ - Official Snapshot i386 Binary-1 (20061111)]/ etch main

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Etch_ - Official Snapshot i386 Binary-1 (20061111)]/ etch main



# deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ sarge main
# deb http://security.debian.org/ sarge/updates main
# deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main


when I tried to follow the instructions for adding more repositories, they left out fields that I needed to fill in, so I couldn't add any

Learn how to install tarballs HERE. Believe me, it'll come in handy later on for you.

Luck!

Man! is that ever ugly. If you run Debian, it is expected that you should have at least a clue of what you are doing. I'm guessing that you installed from an Etch installer when Etch was Testing. Before even thinking about installing any programs, try to get a basic up to date system.

Make your /etc/apt/sources.list file look like this:Then, as root do:
# aptitude keep-all
# aptitude install debian-multimedia-keyring
# aptitude upgrade
# aptitude dist-upgrade

Then post back here the output of:
$ uname -r

When all that is successful, you can think about installing things.

2.6.18-4-686

Sorry for the ugliness, I'm very new to this OS and I was assured by the person who got me into linux that it would automatically update. Apparently, he was mistaken.

for some reason, sources.list is read only and I can't figure out how to get it to let me change it directly, so when I changed the repositories through synaptic, it looked like this:
#





deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org etch main

Additionally, I did get Nvu to work by installing the tarball

Having a proper sources.list is critical for maintaining your system and for installing software. It's the whole key to Debian.

As for the file being read only, you have to su to root in order to edit it.

Well done.

I would use aptitude instead of synaptic. Since you are running Etch (Stable) ... a weekly "# aptitude update" will load in any security updates, which is the only kind of updates Stable gets.

Go to www.backports.org, and follow their instructions to get other important applications updated in Etch.

Since you have added a program, NVU, that aptitude doesn't know about, another "# aptitude keep-all" is in order.

I am not a fan of NVU. I think you can do exactly the same things with a current program... Seamonkey. That is a complete internet suite including browser, email, WYSIWYG HTML editor, etc ... In Debian the application is known as Iceape ... # aptitude install iceape

Good for you!

Uh, in the future, should you want to edit sources.list, you need Root access.

Debian will autoupdate. You just need to have the proper repositories open for it to do so. Your recently amended list should work now.

Have FUN with it!

P.S. Lots of good Debian info HERE.