NOOB Help

[Gamenutters]

Hello all, my first post. I have just switched over to Linux Ubuntu latest build,  I am really liking it so far. I have a big problem though. A really stupid question but i need to ask. I cant manage to install any software i download. With deb files if that's what you call it. How do i install the program i have downloaded?  Thanks for your help with a question you will have answered a number of times i am sure.

[Levent]

Open terminal

Make sure you are in the same directory as the .deb file.

sudo dpkg -i nameofyourdebfile.deb

 

[Gamenutters]

i keep getting this

pkg: error: cannot access archive 'shadow-amd64.deb': No such file or directory

 

 

I am confused i get that on any file i try

[PDifolco]

4 minutes ago, Gamenutters said:

i keep getting this

pkg: error: cannot access archive 'shadow-amd64.deb': No such file or directory

 

 

I am confused i get that on any file i try

Connected to the Internet?

[Levent]

21 minutes ago, Gamenutters said:

i keep getting this

pkg: error: cannot access archive 'shadow-amd64.deb': No such file or directory

 

 

I am confused i get that on any file i try

Then you are not in the same directory as the file. You can either give its full path or change directory where the file is located (or file doesnt exist)

[dragonfly43]

 cd ~/Downloads (assuming you download there)

sudo dpkg …

 

However, install pkgs outside of official repositories is dangerous.

[tortellini88]

Ubuntu? They have gotten more user friendly where you can just double click the package like in Windows and an installer window will appear. If that is not the case, navigate where the DEB file is located in the file explorer, right click and see if there is a button called Open in Terminal (or related). Then run the command `sudo dpkg -i <deb file name>`

[Ralphred]

On 1/11/2024 at 6:33 PM, Gamenutters said:

Hello all, my first post. I have just switched over to Linux Ubuntu latest build,  I am really liking it so far. I have a big problem though. A really stupid question but i need to ask. I cant manage to install any software i download. With deb files if that's what you call it. How do i install the program i have downloaded?  Thanks for your help with a question you will have answered a number of times i am sure.

Just as a general note, when you are in a terminal (bash session) there is a really helpful function called "tab completion".

You can read a little about it here. But basically, if you start typing a command or path, by pressing the tab key bash will try to auto-complete the word you have started, so if you were to type:
 

cd ~/Down[tab][enter]
sudo dpkg -i shad[tab]

is should turn those lines into

cd ~/Downloads
sudo dpkg -i shadow-amd64.deb

It's really useful for checking thing exist/you are in the right directory/spelling odd names etc.

 

EDIT: If you had downloaded a picture, maybe "shadow_and_light.jpg", when you hit [tab] in the ~/Downloads directory, it would sound the "bell" because there are two files that would match the "shad" part: If you hit [tab] again it will list the "possible matches" for you, so you could type 'shadow-' and hit [tab] a third time for the correct completion.