An Easy Installer?

[patchdesigner]

Is there a program that makes installing downloads VERY simple??? im tired of makefile bla bla bla :evil:

[aay]

Yes. It's called apt. Try looking at the documentation regarding it. IMHO it's the best installer on any OS.

BTW, this forum is not really for questions, but for posting nice "nice and tips" that you've discovered and want to share with others. I'm moving it to the general forum.

[Cuddles]

Hello patchdesigner,

Welcome to General Support Forum...

Apt is about the best package/program locator, installer, de-installer, and all around "something" that can muck up (been there done that) thingy...

Four (mostly) used apt's commands:
apt-get update
apt-get install
apt-get upgrade
apt-cache search

Before doing anything, you want to run apt-get update -=- this command downloads the current programs/packages that are available... (and places them in a database for searching/installing)

You can use "apt-cache search [something]" - to locate a package/program that interests you... If you were interested in installing a firewall, then the following search would return packages/programs with that criteria:

apt-cache search firewall

Once you know what you want to install, a simple apt-get install will work... as an example, lets say the package you want is "GuardDog" - the following would download the package, install it, and all, if any, support libs or files, and set it up for you...

apt-get install guarddog

Lastly, is the upgrade, but I prefer not to use it, it always seems to muck up my system everytime I use it, but, to upgrade to the most current packages that are currently installed on your system, you would do the following:

apt-get upgrade

I am sure that the docs on this web site cover most of these, and a "man apt-get" will give you the manual pages for this command, but this is a little more personal - just to get you started...

Hope this helps,
Cuddles

[probono]

or klik:
http://klik.berlios.de

[newellrp1]

Cuddles said: "Lastly, is the upgrade, but I prefer not to use it, it always seems to muck up my system everytime I use it, but, to upgrade to the most current packages that are currently installed on your system, you would do the following:

apt-get upgrade"

well, gee, if apt cant upgrade then maybe its not that great after all. but i suppose it is the best installed ATM... upgrading is definitely a weak area for linux, IMHO

[RockMumbles]

I use apt-get update and apt-get upgrade almost every day on my systems at school on broadband.

Use apt-get -s upgrade to simulate your upgrade and see what it is going to install and remove, if it wants to remove a hundred or so packages don't do it! The problem lies not so much with apt-get as much as with knoppix being made from packages from the testing (sarge), and unstable (sid) versions of debian. The only apt-get upgrade problems I have ran into recently are with things like KDE which is hundreds of packages some of which contain the same files so dpkg will error out with an error something like file blah-blah-blah-3.2.1_i386.deb is also in package someting-else. In this instance you have to use dpkg --force-overwrite -i to install the package. Do a search here for force-overwrite to see more info on that command and when people have had to use it.

Also often times with knoppix you have to specify the repository if apt-get install some-package fails try apt-get -t unstable install some-package to get the package from unstable instead of from testing. You can also try apt-get -t unstable -s upgrade and see what that would do.

HTH

~rock

[c123]

Pretty sure I read on these forums not so long ago a way of updating 'non-blindly' - use 'apt-get *soemthing* > list.txt' to generate a text file that lists all packages apt will upgrade if you upgrade blindly. Read/edit (remove packages you do not want to update) the text file, then run apt again supplying the text file as an argument, e.g. 'apt-get *whatever* < edited_list.txt'.

Last time I searched for the thread on this I oculdn't find it - could someone post the right commands please?

[Cuddles]

C123,

I think I saw the exact same thing, but, what I remember was it was a form of "backup" of apt-get install -=- so, if upgrade blew up your installs, you could "revert back" to what you had previously :?:

It did see the "porting" output to a file, as the form of backup, and after running a "apt-get upgrade" your system was trashed, you could point the "backup" file into "apt-get" to revert back to what things were "before" the upgrade. I think it used dpkg though, possibly why a search for this is not coming up. I had a problem with upgrade ONLY because of the reasons mentioned here. I had Xine working fine, did a upgrade, and the Xine package was upgraded, but not the DVD library that ALSO needs to be upgraded with it. Result ended up making Xine not able to play my DVDs, a WONDERFUL Guru here just had to point me to another "update" of the DVD library that worked with the Xine upgraded package - and it worked fine.

apt-get upgrade works, its a great idea, and in "most" cases, does what it has to do - it just has a lot of work to do, and has to make "judgement" calls when two packages are going to be upgraded that "conflict" with each other. If package "A" needs library "D", and package "B" needs to use library "C" - and package "A" used to use library "C" as well -=- apt-get has to determine which package is going to do what, and possibly at the cost of one of the packages not getting what it needs.

If you read the man pages on apt-get, which helped me understand why I kept having problems whenever I did a upgrade, you realize just how "powerful" apt-get really is - amazing it isn't some form of AI programming, due to its decissions it has to make...

here is an example:

Package A - operating system module - uses library E and F...
Package B - open office program - uses library F, G, and H...

doing an apt-get upgrade, apt-get realizes that "Package A" needs to be upgraded, but not "Package B" - if it does upgrade "Package A", "Package B" will be broken because they both have the same "Library F" in them. Now apt-get "may" look to see if it can find a way to upgrade "Package B", along with "Package A" and "Library F", but it will also need to find (possibly) upgraded libraries for G and H to make dependencies for "Package B" if it is upgraded.

This, being a simple two package situation, you need to add into this, the complexity of what apt-get upgrade has to deal with, possibly hundreds of these "dependancy" issues when you run the command, and all the "decissions" it has to make. It is, no wonder, it can possibly mess something up when you do a upgrade, with all the decissions it has to make on which one is more important, and which one can be "broken".

I am sorry if my "parania" has caused anyone to be "scared" of apt-get, in particular, upgrade, but, I have had to many times that the "upgrade" has made decisions that have caused "something" not to work, and it did before the upgrade. I am quite sure the upgrade did its job, it upgraded something "important" over something less important, which is what, if you read the man pages, it is SUPPOSED to do. Xine is NOT that important, especially the "dvd" library that was broken, during the upgrade. I was able to get it resolved, and I am pretty sure, that the upgrade DID upgrade something that was a LOT more important than just a Xine library, possibly something that kept my system running, so, my parania is probably not justified. I just don't like my system to just "start" having problems, when it was working fine BEFORE I did a upgrade.

Again, sorry if my "phobic" reactions have caused anyone any alarm,
Cuddles