Simple question: How to update (reinstall, install a new version) some software on Debian?

As always, reading books or googling gives long complicated explanations that conduct nowhere. They talk about "repositories" which imply (to me) connection to internet. They also talk about "updates as if the system is going to look for the updates for me. I dont need that.

Too complicated. My situation is simpler:

I have a deb file "application.deb", I know that a previous version of "application" is installed in the system and I want to replace it with this file. (no need to look for this file in a "repository" or any other deciding which is the update.)

someone please tell me How do I do that?

Thanks a lot

the tool named dpkg is used to install packages. So try:
dpkg --install application.deb
see man page about flags

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Thank you very much.

Does this also replace (erase) the old version with the new one??

yes, older version will be replaced.

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Yes, you DO need updates (they are necessary for security stability) and they are really, really easy.

(These commands must be run as root using 'su' or 'sudo' depending how your system is set up.)

Easy, right?

Or to update a specific application individually, for example iceweasel:

This is all that 99% of Debian users ever need to know. Debian provides nice, stable software that is a little older, but very well tested.

If you are in the 1% of users that need a newer version of an app, for some reason, it is helpful to tell us the name of the mystery app, so we can discuss a specific example rather than relevant and specific advice. "How to install and update all possible software" is difficult to explain in 1 or 2 paragraphs.

By the way, the books and websites that are talking about repositories are probably giving you good advice so ignore it at your own risk! As always, the most reliable source of information about Debian is the Debian Wiki, always my first recommendation where to start.

As you see, there are several different "flavors" of package-installation software, depending on the exact distribution that you use. (The documentation for your distro will clearly specify which one is the right one for you.) Nevertheless, they all work in more or less the same way: they determine which version of the target package is available (or that a particular requested version is available), then they automatically determine the prerequisites and corequisites (the "dependencies"), and the correct order of installation. Then, while you sit back and watch, they retrieve the packages from "the right somewhere," perform a digital verification to confirm that the package is authentic, and install the package. Nearly always, the new version supersedes and therefore replaces the old one.

And, basically, you should never deviate from that. If you maintain your system using vendor-supplied packages, never attempt to do it any other way. Never attempt to get those packages from anywhere other than the vendor-approved repositories. Everything depends upon the package-manager software accurately knowing the complete present-state of your system, so that it can automatically move it to a designated future-state.

I would further suggest: "computer software like fine wine ... let it age." Just because a new update has been released, doesn't mean that you ought to install it that same day. Mistakes do happen, and they'll be found-out (by other people!) within a day or two. If you stay "just a little bit behind the curve," but not by much, you can dodge those issues. (Even IBM did that once, shipping a fix-tape for a mainframe system that would leave the machine un-bootable. The IBM-rep called me frantically. But I hadn't installed the tape, and of course, never did.) Be timely, especially with regard to security updates, but perhaps not quite "that" timely.

Thank you for the helpful advice .

I have been trying to install the latest version of guvcview since the one I got (version 1.5.3) simply doesn't work. (No controls in the control panels, image freeze each time, segmentation fault when pressing defaults).

Unfortunately I can't access the internet from the virtual machine in which I am running linux (that is another huge issue, goggled for hours, no solution to that)

In the end I tried to install it but the necessary libraries were missing. With no internet, no way to retrieve them (AND the program actually deleted the old version) It recommended me to install version 1.5.3

So I downloaded the old version again and install it and voila! I still got the buggy version.

It is strange that Debian would have such a buggy software in their "stable" release, curious.

One option to get a newer guvcview would be to use "apt-pinning" to install version 1.7.1 from the "testing" repositories.

http://packages.debian.org/search?ke...ll&section=all

This is probably what the tutorials about repositories you didn't feel like reading advised you to do.

If you are looking for a distro that beginners can use without reading a lot of documentation, why not give Linux Mint a try? (That being said, I am on the current Mint 13 Long Term Support release, and I checked for you: I have guvcview version 1.5.3, same as you---apparently this version that is so buggy for you is considered stable by most users and developers?)

After many months without touching this subject, I am back with the problem.,

I asked the company that provided the distribution and they told me, guvcview (and actually other video programs too) is buggy probably because I am running linux on a virtual machine. They recommend using a normal linux on a PC environment....

Are you talking about the company that supplied you Debian or the company that supplied you guvcview? guvcview is a normal Debian packages and no company is necessary. Likewise Debian can be downloaded from its own website. What is the name of the "company" that provided the distribution"?
jdk

Unless you have a specific reason not to let your Debian virtual machine connect to the internet and/or your host operating system cannot access the internet then I would suggest things would be much easier were you to simply allow the virtual machine to connect to the internet and update your packaged from the repositories.
It is the nature of modern operating systems that they assume an internet connection will be available for updates.
If you are having problems connecting your VM to the internet and your host OS has internet access then I suggest you open another thread as that ought to be fairly easy to resolve, should you wish to.

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Well actually it is the company that provides me the hardware I am working on. They also- on the side- provide the development environment which is basically a debian distribution to be run on a virtual machine. Of course, I can just download debian and do my own stuff. (Actually I tried to do that once but wow it takes a lot of space, no?)

Hi,
I don't think it's any larger than other full operating systems. You'd need at least 1G for a minimal install and 5G for a full gui (Gnome 3). See https://www.debian.org/releases/stab...h03s04.html.en

How big are the latest offerings for Microsoft and Apple?

Evo2.

Although it is not a pressing issue anymore, I still got the problem of guvcview. (Oh I learned to install packages on Debian already, which was the original question )
I have no idea how to solve that, but I just noticed a few things.

Before when I connected my system with a "smart camera" there were no controls to be seen on guvcview.
Now that I am using a totally different camera (not "smart" just UVC) there are controls and I can use them but the image gets freezed everytime

I just thought I would report that. Thank you for all the effort you guys put here to help me