Ubuntu Daily » Package Management

Manage your software packages offline with APTonCD

Tim — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:34:00 +0000

Most Ubuntu users will value package management as one of the top features of their OS. Installing and updating software with APT/dpkg and their respective graphical user interfaces (i.e. Synaptic, Update manager and gdebi) is a breeze once you are accustomed to it.

However, the ease of use is dependent on the internet connection. If no connection is available, package management can become a pain.

Luckily there’s a new project called APTonCD to solve this problem and open up new possibilities.

The software allows you to create backups of all the packages available on your system. It will automatically scan your computer and present a list with all found packages. This list can be easily customized by deselecting entries or by adding more packages, which can be seen in this screenshot:

Once a disc is created it can be used to restore your computer after a reinstall or to install the software on another computer without the need of an internet connection.

The restore options look like this:

The software is not ground-breaking because there are ways to achieve the functionality with command line tools, but it is nice to see that Ubuntu offers more and more tools that allow even non-technical users to master advanced tasks with graphical tools.

APTonCD is in Ubuntu Feisty right now to test it. For more information, visit the APTonCD website.

Install rpm packages by converting them to deb

Tim — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:22:00 +0000

Once in a while you might want to install software that is neither in a repository nor available as a standalone deb package.

If you’re in this situation, there is another option for you, converting an rpm file and installing the so created deb.

So if you do have an rpm file and want to install it, follow these steps:

Install the packages alien and fakeroot. This is easily done with the following command:

sudo apt-get install alien fakeroot
Download the rpm file and open a terminal in the directory the rpm is in.
Run the following command to start the conversion:

fakeroot alien NameOfThe.rpm
After a few seconds there will be a deb file that you can install like this:

sudo dpkg -i NameOfThe.deb

Linspire’s Click and Run soon to be available on Ubuntu

Tim — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 20:05:00 +0000

Linspire’s user-friendly way of installing software is called CNR (Click and Run). Basically it’s a categorised directory of software with a summary of a software title and a rating system for the users.

Linspire itself puts it as following:

CNR.com will be a free on-line digital software warehouse and one-click delivery service designed to solve the complexity of finding, installing and managing software applications on your Linux desktop computer.

It has recently been announced that Linspire plans to make the CNR service available on all major Linux distributions, which of course includes Ubuntu.