How to Install Software on Linpus Linux

There have been several posts recently from people asking for sites from which to download software and install it. That's Windows thinking: for most applications under Linux it's far easier than that.

The Linux Way
Linux comes with a system called Package Management. There is a program on the machine which maintains a list of what software is available, and downloads and installs it for you. In Linpus Linux, this package manager is called Pirut.

Getting Started
To start Pirut:

• Either enable the right-click menus (see this thread: http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=28#p158). This is the better approach since software you install will generally be available from the right-click menu. Right-click on the screen, then select System -> Add/Remove Software from the menu.

• Or start a run dialog (Alt-F2) and type 'pirut' in the dialog box and click OK.

Pirut asks you for your password: enter it and OK the box. Be aware that it takes some time for Pirut to come to life - it seems to create a full list of available software each time, rather than keeping a cache, so be patient at this point.

Pirut Screens
The first Pirut screen lists categories of software; select a category (for example, Applications), then tick a sub-category in the list on the right (for example, 'Educational Software'). If you now click 'Optional Packages' you'll get a list of what can be installed under that category: tick packages you want, close this dialog, and click 'Apply'.

On the second Pirut tab, there is a Search box. If you know roughly the name of the package you want (for eaxample 'Amarok'), search for that term. A list of possible packages will come up - select the one you want, tick it and click 'Apply'.

Finally there is the List tab. This is frankly not very useful - it's just a list of all the software available. However it may be useful to check what is actually installed on your machine.

What happens now?
When you click 'Apply', Pirut does two things. First, it checks whether there are any Dependencies - if you've selected a package there may be other packages it needs to run. Linux software often depends on libraries, which need installing before the package itself can be installed, and may require other software to be present. Pirut will warn you that it is going to install more than you originally asked for, but usually you want it to do this so that your new software will run.

Second, it will connect to the repository, download your package and any dependencies, and install the software for you.

Occasionally, dependencies may fail. This is not very common, but it does happen. If it does, there are often ways to sort it out, but they are more complex. Ask for help on the forums, copying in the error messages Pirut provides.

Finding your new Software
When it finishes, the software is usually available in the right-click menu system - but If you have installed a package without a graphical interface, it usually won't appear in the menu, because you have to run it from a terminal (so there's not a lot of point in it having its own menu entry). Probably most of what you want will be graphical and so will be in the menu.

My software doesn't work!
Three possibilities:

• It wasn't going to work anyway: it doesn't do what you thought it did. Use Pirut to remove it again.

• It needs additional packages to do what you want (so it works at a more basic level). If it tells you what packages it wants, install them in the same way; if not, ask for help on the forums.

• It's not the brand new version you saw described on its website, so bits of it don't work. The repository software is often not the most up to date version, both because someone has to take the trouble to package it for the repository, and because the latest versions often also have the latest bugs. If you really need the latest version, you'll need to find out about downloading the source code and compiling it yourself. That's not actually as scary as it sounds, but it's not a topic for this more simple guide.

The software I want isn't listed
In that case, you may need to find an rpm package somewhere (for example, you can download an rpm package for Skype) and install it using the terminal. You need to find an rpm package suitable for Fedora 8. The command you need to install from the terminal is:

Code:

sudo rpm -Uhv name_of_package

(where name_of_package is obviously replaced by the name of the package you've downloaded, including the directory path to get to it). Again, the package management system will try to resolve any dependencies for you.

If there is no rpm package available, again you are looking at downloading the source and compiling.

 

Thanks for the help! Will try it.

 

Version Upgrades

How do you do a version upgrade (eg firefox)?

 

Code:

sudo yum update <name of package>

will update the package concerned, but only where there's an update in the repositories. Two warnigns:

1. Don't do this with Firefox on th One. Several Acer apps depend on the Firefox 2 libraries, and will fail if you remove FF2.
2. Don't miss out the package name -if you do it attempts to upgrade all packages on the system. You may not want some upgraded (eg Firefox, as above!)

 

Can you please continue on? I do want to upgrade FF2 (and other apps). How do I know about dependancies before I do it and get the screen full of errors?

If http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/inst ... e-one.html is the only way then some more generalised description for other packages would be useful.

(There are installation bits all over the place which are fairly subtle and don't mean much to people with a windows background. Seems this is the only thread that pulls it together.)

 

Yum (the command-line program referred to above) will try to resolve any dependencies for you; theoretically if there's a package in the repository (er, see translation below!) then it shouldn't depend on anything which is not also in the repository, as that's a standard for repository management. It can happen, especially with repositories which are updated frequently, and there can be a time lag between uploads so you can find that a dependency won't resolve one day but will the next. (My main PC uses a Linux distro which is fed from a repository containing the latest versions of everything; when a new version of a package can be released sometimes three or four times in a week, sometimes the dependencies can lag a little). However the Fedora 8 based repos should be reasonable static.

The Firefox update is an unusual one; Acer have (again!) done something non-standard in relying on Firefox-specific libraries and locations to support their applications without 'telling' the system that they are dependencies. This means that, if you want those specific applications to work, you have to install FF3 as well as FF2, rather than just upgrade, as the upgrade will remove obsolete libraries which are (supposedly) not depended upon by anything else.

Translations: a package is an application together with information about dependencies, file locations, configuration needs etc which is set up to install easily on a Linux machine. A repository is an Internet site where packages are stored, with a list of packages in a specific format which can be read by package management software like yum and pirut. A dependency is another package which is required in order to install the software you want; Linux programmes often use other programmes to do some of their work, thus reducing package sizes and re-using other good stuff. A photo management package like Digikam, for example, uses a series of standard (and very good) image manipulation libraries, rather than reinventing a wheel which ahs already been invented very well!

 

hi

having problems downloading software. this is what i'm doing:-

1. right click - select system
2. add/remove software enter password
3. e.g click applications and check sound and video and 19 packages to download
4. click apply - packages selected - click continue
5. resolving dependencies for updates
6. dependencies added - continue
7. updating software
8. ERROR UPDATING SOFTWARE

this happens for all software in the package manager.

please help its driving me crazy

 

Does this help?

 

thanks for the reply. i'm new to all this so do i just right click and select terminal and enter sudo yum install fedora-release and press enter?

sorry i just don't know anything about linux

 

That's right, yes.

 

hi

tried what you said and it still won't install any software. don't suppose you have any other ideas.

thanks for all your help anyway

 

OK: let's look a bit deeper!

Can you try installing something from the terminal, then copy and paste the messages you get into a message here? To do this, get a terminal like you did last time, pick something you want to install (not firefox, as indicated before) and enter this into the terminal:

Code:

sudo yum install whatever

obviously replacing whatever with the name of the package you want. Then highlight all the output, and copy/paste into a post here.

 

the software i need to download is to enable me to listen to online radio i.e radio 5 live. at the moment the acer aspire one doesn't play any live radio with the software installed. any ideas what software is required?

 

I can listen to Radio 5 live using Firefox and the iPlayer. Doesn't it work on your system?

 

i can listen to radio broadcasts from previous days on iplayer but it won't let me listen live broadcasts. i have 2 of these acer aspire ones which were presents for my sons for christmas and both of them don't work on live radio broadcasts.

 

Hmm. I'm listening to 5 Live as I type this, in the iPlayer interface. (iPlayer->Radio Stations->BBC Radio 5 Live->Listen Live).

It appears to be coming over as a .ram stream; I have mplayer installed and it's possible that the mplayer plugin is handling it. I think it's worth a go installing the packages mplayer and mplayerplug-in; they both appear in add/remove software for me, but I do have an additional repositroy enabled. If you can't find them post again and I'll dig out the info on how to enable the extra repo.

 

the mplayer and mplayerplug-in are both installed

 

I don't know quite what's going on, then! If you put "aboutlugins" in the Firefox address bar, does it say that RealMedia is being handled by the plugin?

(Just found this thread, too - any use?)

 

you are fantastic. followed the link from the thread to download realplayer and it worked like a dream. this little machine is brilliant.

many thanks for your help

 

a simpler way would be..

Code:

sudo yum update mplayer