installing software
 

i am using debian linux and am completely new to it..my friend told me tat i can find linux softwares at http://www.sourceforge.net and i had downloaded a software package of ghostscript pdf writer..but the problem is tat i dont know how to install it..i am using kde if tat is needed..could anyone help me plzzz..its really getting frustrating coz i cant use this os..should i switch back to xp which is easier to use..i would like to hear from anyone knowledgeable
regards
vaalu

Hi,


First of, you should start by looking the documentation at debian's page or debian's wiki about APT and how use it to install packages or the man page of APT.

While it's true that from sourceforge you can get access a ton of open source projects, debian has a pretty good source through its repositories, that's why I tell you that you should read about apt ;)

Debian has several front-ends to apt so make installing packages a breeze, examples of that are Synaptic, apt-get, wajig, aptitude, dselect...

From the command line, in debian normally is a matter of apt-get install package where 'package' will be what you're trying or wanna install. But surely the debian users of LQ can give you more in-depth about the subject.

About the package you downloaded, well, you don't give much information, I mean, it is a "Debian package" ? (like package.deb) it is a tarball? (like package.tar.gz, package.tar.bz2....)

If it is a debian package, then, should be something like dpkg -i package.deb but, it's better to install using the repositories, however, see man page of dpkg to know more




Regards

thank you for the fast reply..i find the apt program very useful..but i would like to know how to compile and install a program just for the sake of knowing..if u could help me with tat too it would have been gr8......

Hi,


You can find a lot of that in google, use it, doesn't bite ;)

A good page to start is this. Hope you find it usefull




Regards

In general, extract the tarball and then run ./configure, make, and make install (the make install must be done as root to install into system directories). There are a number of program specific options to ./configure -- usually ./configure --help will print a list. It's really not all that hard, but you should try to use apt-get as much as possible because the packaging system won't know about stuff you've installed from source and this could lead to multiple versions of the same program being installed. Also note that the ./configure, make, make install method is the usual way but a number of programs have different methods. When you uncompress a tarball there should be a README or INSTALL file that will give you detailed instructions on how to install the program.

As a footnote, Debian comes with the rpm program, and rpm packages can be used with debian. Compiling from source is rarely necessary with Debian, as Etch stable has over 17,000 packages available. You can try synaptic package manager. You always need to remember to update, or reload the package lists. apt-get update, or reload in synaptic. dselect is the front end for apt-get.