Q4OS Forum

Pinapple

Member

Registered: 2016-12-07

Posts: 4

How to add an external repository

Hi

Today I have installed Q4OS 1.8 Orion on a netbook an I have some items, maybe because I am not used with DEB and synaptic package management.

The first question regards adding repositories.
Actually I want add the add DEB packages from OpenOffice , which are saved in a directory (only DEB files) on the hard disk.

I tried to add it through Synaptic-GUI, but after the refreshing I got the error message

Nicht alle Paketquellenindizes konnten heruntergeladen werden
Der Treiber für Methode /usr/lib/apt/methods/system konnte nicht gefunden werden

engl.-> It was not possible to download all the packaging indexes
The methods driver /usr/...  not found

In the synaptic packaging source list you can see the added directory as active, but not the single deb programs in the packet list.

How can I do that?

PS:
I consulted the Q4OS setup and using, user manual on the web (rev. 06/2016 - Section 14. External software repositories) but I did not find any practicable help for me.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,256

Website

Re: How to add an external repository

There is a tool named 'gdebi' available from regular repositories, it's able to directly install '.deb' packages and dependencies, if available. So, you need to install gdebi from Synaptic or from terminal, and run it:
$ sudo apt-get install gdebi
$ sudo gdebi
Navigate locally saved '.deb' files to install them. You could report back, if would noticed any issues.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,989

Re: How to add an external repository

Also you could use libreoffice from the repositories as it is quite similar, but this is Linux we can choose.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,256

Website

Re: How to add an external repository

Also you could use libreoffice from the repositories as it is quite similar, but this is Linux we can choose.

Yes, if you install LO from repositories, you get version 4, if you install from Software Centre you get LO-5.2

Pinapple

Member

Registered: 2016-12-07

Posts: 4

Re: How to add an external repository

Thank you all very much for fast answers!

about LO: I know it and I have installed it on the main PC but I prefer to use OO, because LO is very slow and the context menus oft do not appear in calc.

There is a tool named 'gdebi' available from regular repositories, it's able to directly install '.deb' packages and dependencies, ...

I installed and used it. But you must have a great great patience to install the more then 40 DEB-files and you have to guess the right package order, in order avoiding error message caused of missing dependencies. So I stopped after 10 installs ...

But I found installation instructions in the online User Guide of Apache:

1. Login as root or from the GUI, open a root terminal.
2. Type the following command, to install the software:
dpkg -i openoffice.org*.deb \
desktop-integration/openoffice.org-debian-menus*.deb

Obviously you must change the directory to the location, where the package, you want to install, are saved.

All done in a couple of minutes.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,256

Website

Re: How to add an external repository

But I found installation instructions in the online User Guide of Apache

You may need to run an additional command to install needed dependencies after the 'dpkg -i ...':
$ sudo apt-get install -f

Pinapple

Member

Registered: 2016-12-07

Posts: 4

Re: How to add an external repository

You may need to run an additional command to install needed dependencies after the 'dpkg -i ...':
$ sudo apt-get install -f

mmhh... I didn't ...
Do you mean, the dpkg -i does not check dependencies?
Anyway I got no message and I was able to open OO.

Should I run apt-get install -f for security now, every time after dpkg -i or alternatively to that?

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,989

Re: How to add an external repository

I think you have your instructions mixed up, dpkg -i install does NOT install dependencies, gdebi definitely DOES install them without question or error.

The reason you might have to run sudo apt-get install -f is if you use the dpkg -i command it does not install dependencies and you need to manually pull them in using the apt-get command.

Pinapple

Member

Registered: 2016-12-07

Posts: 4

Re: How to add an external repository

I think you have your instructions mixed up, dpkg -i install does NOT install dependencies, gdebi definitely DOES install them without question or error.

The reason you might have to run sudo apt-get install -f is if you use the dpkg -i command it does not install dependencies and you need to manually pull them in using the apt-get command.

OK, I understood and run apt-get -f install FILENAME and as you expected, some dependencies have been installed.

Dai_trying, thanks a lot for explanation

BSpinoza

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2016-03-26

Posts: 30

Re: How to add an external repository

I have removed all libreOffice packages via synaptic from my laptop.
Then I downloaded from the homepage of LibreOffice the recent version (main package, german language package and help package).
Then I used Ark to unpack the files
and then i installed all this .deb files with

 ~ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

and everything was ok.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,989

Re: How to add an external repository

Yes, that would work providing that there are no unmet dependencies, if there are then you would still need to run the sudo apt-get -f install to pull in any required dependencies. Although I would have thought that you could have just installed from apt as LibreOffice is included already (4.3.3 from Jessie or 5.2.3 from backports).