Easy way to install programs

[DreddTrekkiter]

Hi peeps

Right, so I'm know my way around Windows XP pretty damn well - not to toot my own trumpet or anything - and one thing I don't like about all types of Linux - I've tried 4 types so far, and am using Lubuntu at this moment - is the complexity of installing programs that aren't in the Software Centre, for example, I'm a Java programmer and my favourite editor is Eclipse www.eclipse.org but Eclipse isn't on the Software Centre so I have to go to Eclipse.org and download the Linux installation pack. It downloads an archive.

Now, I've found several different ways of installing something:

Software Centre - Sometimes it doesn't have the package I want

To download the archive and go to properties and set it to executable - It usually comes up with a message saying "Could not open archive" or something like that

To go to the terminal and use the sudo command which usually says that it can't find the file!

So could someone please tell me a hopefully foolproof way of installing a package?

Thanks in advance,

DreddTrekkiter

[23dornot23d]

This works for me ...........

sudo apt-get install eclipse-platform

[Warren Hill]

Are you sure eclipse is not in the software centre it is in Ubuntu. I haven't checked Lubuntu but I think it uses the same repositories so should be there.

It won't be the latest version however. If you want the latest version see this question on AskUbuntu:

How to install Eclipse?

[Ubi_one_2014]

did you go to:
http://repogen.simplylinux.ch/

and create the sources u want?

eventually a file is created.

open a terminal, and type

sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list, and copy the file into that, after removed all lines
save it

in a terminal, do
su - [enter]

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
[enter]

afterwards, click Y or J to apply the updates

.deb files are normally installed by
sudo dpkg -i filename.deb
[enter]

sometimes u have to do
apt-get -f install, to install dependencies

[buzzingrobot]

Software Centre - Sometimes it doesn't have the package I want

To download the archive and go to properties and set it to executable - It usually comes up with a message saying "Could not open archive" or something like that...

Eclipse is in the Ubuntu repositories.

In Linux, a file that ends with an extension like "...tar.gz" is an archive, and nothing else. Traditional, typical, use is to package source code files along with generic scripts to compile that source and, if successful, copy the resulting binaries to the correct locations in the file system. While that amounts to "installation", and there is often an "install.sh" script in the archive, it is not intended for end users. (Installing binaries that way also does an end run around the software on your system that tracks what has been installed and makes things like easy updates and dependency resolution possible. That software does not know those binaries are there.)

Windows software can often be packed into a single, simple, archive that can be expanded into its own folder and executed because Windows will allow libraries and other files needed by an application -- its dependencies -- to be installed multiple times in multiple locations. This has updating and security implications.

Linux deals with these dependencies differently. Applications share a single copy of the file they are dependent on. For example, when you use the Software Center application to install Application X, it knows what else Application X requires to execute successfully. It checks your system to determine how many of those dependencies are already installed, and then it installs Application X and all its other dependencies.

Later, when you ask Software Center to install an application that requires the same dependencies as Application X, it won't install any of them, because they are already on your system.

Archives -- aka Packages -- intended for installation on Ubuntu use the file extension '.deb". If you manipulate their properties, they can be associated with an application that will install them via a click. (Note that not all ".deb" packages are for Ubuntu.)

[ibjsb4]

Software Centre - Sometimes it doesn't have the package I want

Maybe you just need a better way to do a package search. Instead of the software-center, I use Synaptic Package Manager, it shows 58 eclipse packages.

eclipse.png

[grumblebum2]

did you go to:
http://repogen.simplylinux.ch/

and create the sources u want?

eventually a file is created.

open a terminal, and type

sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list, and copy the file into that, after removed all lines
save it

in a terminal, do
su - [enter]

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
[enter]

afterwards, click Y or J to apply the updates

.deb files are normally installed by
sudo dpkg -i filename.deb
[enter]

sometimes u have to do
apt-get -f install, to install dependencies

So you really think that's an easy way to install programs by telling a new user to overwrite /etc/apt/sources.list and giving a few
code lines one of which includes kate which he probably doesn't even have installed anyway.
All your doing is causing more confusion.

[ibjsb4]

So you really think that's an easy way to install programs by telling a new user to overwrite /etc/apt/sources.list and giving a few
code lines one of which includes kate which he probably doesn't even have installed anyway.
All your doing is causing more confusion.

yup

[oldos2er]

did you go to:
http://repogen.simplylinux.ch/

and create the sources u want?

eventually a file is created.

open a terminal, and type

sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list, and copy the file into that, after removed all lines
save it

in a terminal, do
su - [enter]

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
[enter]

afterwards, click Y or J to apply the updates

.deb files are normally installed by
sudo dpkg -i filename.deb
[enter]

sometimes u have to do
apt-get -f install, to install dependencies

Since Ubuntu doesn't enable the root account, su - won't work. kate is not installed in default Ubuntu, but gedit is.

[ChiefWOTJ]

What distro are you using? Eclipse should be in the repos. If it is not showing in the software center, you may try doing an apt-cache search by typing 'apt-cache search java | grep eclipse'. Once you see the application you want, you can just do an apt-get install that will pull in all the required dependencies including the default JDK.