Unofficial Debian packages

From NewbieDOC

--Chris Lale 10:56, 19 January 2006 (CET)

--Chris Lale 12:41, 5 April 2007 (CEST)

Contents

1 Third party packages

Many unofficial .debs are available from http://apt-get.org/

2 Backports

Packages in the Testing and Unstable distributions are often unavailable for the Stable distribution. You cannot install the Testing/Unstable packages because of dependency issues.

Packages at http://www.backports.org/ are compiled against libraries in the Stable distribution.

LAMP (Linux, Apache, Mysql, PHP) packages at http://dotdeb.org/ are compiled against libraries in the Stable distribution.

3 Installing third party packages and backports

3.1 Commandline

Download the .deb file and install from the commandline using dpkg as user root.

$ su
(enter root password)

# dpkg -i name-of-package.deb
# exit
$

Uninstall using the -r switch to remove the package.

$ su
(enter root password)

# dpkg -r name-of-package.deb
# exit
$

3.2 Synaptic

If you are using Synaptic in the X Window System, you must add the repository to /etc/apt/sources.list using

Settings -> Repositories -> New

For example, the instructions at backports.org tell you to add the line

deb http://www.backports.org/debian/ sarge-backports main

In the URI field put

http://www.backports.org/debian/

In the Distribution field put

sarge-backports

In the Section(s) field put

main

4 How to remove backports before Debian upgrade

If you are upgrading to a new version of Debian (eg Sarge -> Etch), you may wish to remove your backported packages first (since they cannot be upgraded).

4.1 Commandline

You can identify backported packages and remove them before upgrading. To find all the currently installed ('~i) packages from backports.org ('~Obackports'), run this search:

$ aptitude search '~i ~Obackports'

Remove the backports.

To find all the currently installed ('~i) packages not ('!') from debian.org ('~!Odebian'), run this search:

$ aptitude search '~i !~Odebian'

This will find all the unofficial packages on your system including locally installed packages.

For more information see Aptitude's command line reference in the README at /usr/share/doc/aptitude/README or /usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/en/rn01.html (Etch).

4.2 Synaptic

Remove backports.org from sources.list. They should all show up as "Installed (local or obsolete)". You can do this within Synaptic:

Settings -> Repositories

View the /etc/sources.list entries in the "Installation media" tab. Disable or highlight and remove the entry for backports.org, then reload the package information.

Installation Media -> [backports channel] -> remove
Edit -> Reload Package Information

In the left-hand panel click on the "Status" button and choose "Installed (local or obsolete)"

Status -> Installed (local or obsolete)

Remove the backports.

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