comes with a set of advanced tools that allow a user to easily install

software packages.

These tools can resolve dependencies and suggest alternative packages to satisfy those dependencies.

The advanced tools that manag

e software packages ar

and it's guified sibling

(

provides

, which is a graphical front end to

. This program makes it very easy to add security updates and to browse through and search the lists of packages.

It is very useful to be able to work with the command line tools, and you will find that they are quicker to use once you get used to them. The

tool works from the same database of known packages that is used b

. The packages themselves can be located on CDs, DVDs, harddisks, network shares, and ftp or http sites. As long as the sources have been added to the

database, their packages can be accessed, no matter where they may be.

This page contains the

commands, as well as

directions that you can use, which will give you access to thousands of applications, security updates, and upgrades.

Please note that all commands on this page require that you be in a terminal session. You must know the

password to perform administrative tasks

, or have the ability to login as

root

. If you are using

, the ability to login as

root

is disabled by default. To get around this, the

sudo

command is used. Every command on this page is prefixed with the

sudo

command, however, if you are logged in as

root

than you can omit the

sudo

prefix.

To update your sources, regularly run the following command

sudo apt-get update

After updating your sources, you can automatically upgrade all of your currently installed software, to the latest versions available, by regularly run the following command

sudo apt-get upgrade

There are three main categories of repositories (also known as software sources):

Ubuntu

Software

- Downloadable from the Internet and Installable from CD-ROM/DVD

Updates

updates

Third-Party Software

- other packages

Below are the descriptions of each category, as well as instructions for adding repositories to each category.

II. Ubuntu Software
(Downloadable from the Internet and Installable from CD-ROM/DVD)

Included in the

Software

repositories are:

Main

- Canonical-supported Open Source software

Universe

- Community-maintained Open Source software

Restricted

- Proprietary drivers for devices

Multiverse

- Software restricted by copyright or legal issues

Source code

- Source code for applications

Installable from CD-ROM/DVD

- the installation media used to install Linux

Here are the directions to add these repositories using

Start the

by going to the

System

menu, then to

Administration

, and then select

. This can also be done by running the following command:

sudo synaptic

Once

has started, go to the

Settings

menu and choose

Repositories

On the

Ubuntu Software

tab, place a check beside each option, as shown. Also, from the

Download from

dropdown list, choose a server mirror near you

Optional: if you do not want to be periodically asked for your installation CD or DVD while installing software, you may unselct the box next to the "CDrom with Ubuntu...". By doing so, it will download the packages from servers on the internet instead of copying them from the original CD or DVD.

Once completed, click the

button.

III. Updates
(Ubuntu updates)

Included in the

pda

tes are:

Security

- Important security updates

Updates

- Recommended updates

Proposed

- Pre-released updates

Backports

- Unsupported updates

Here are the directions to add these repositories using

Start the

by going to the

System

menu, then to

Administration

, and then select

. This can also be done by running the following command:

sudo synaptic

Once

has started, go to the

Settings

menu and choose

Repositories

On the

Updates

tab, place a check beside each option. Also, select the frequency of update checks, and select the update action, as shown.

Once completed, click the

button.

IV. Third-Party Software

This section tells you how to add custom repositories, as well as lists a number of these repositories.

Following the directions for adding custom repositories, there is a list of repositories that you may wish to use. Note that the steps reference the repository list, which can be found at the bottom of this page.

Advanced Users: Another method for adding Third-Party Software repositories is to manually add the APT Lines directly to sources.list file (using the command: sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list). Key Files, once downloaded, can then be manually added by using the sudo apt-key add keyfile command, where keyfile is the name and location of the Key File (for example: sudo apt-key add ~/Desktop/medibuntu-key.gpg).

Here are the directions to add these repositories using