FOSSwire

PkgBase has long been an unknown web site outside of FOSSwire; it was simply a quickly-linkable site that could be used to provide new users with instructions on how to install software packages.

And in reality, that’s all it should ever be. Today I’ve re-written PkgBase from the ground up. Instead of trying to guess the user’s operating system and spit out an error when something went wrong, the new site will now simply do nothing. That sounds like a bad thing, but now all of the information is on one page – no need for a different page for each distribution.

If PkgBase can guess the visitor’s distribution, then it will point them to the proper section of the page. If not, then the visitor can simply read from the top of the page and quickly find out what to do.

To use PkgBase, simply link to http://pkgb.net/, followed by the package you want to install. For example, if I want to make a link to install Gobby, I can simply use http://pkgb.net/gobby. Anyone who visits the link will be directed to the proper section of the page for their distribution; for me that link ends up being http://pkgb.net/gobby/#ubuntu.

Note the use of a slash at the end of a URL. If there is no slash present, then PkgBase will make a best guess at detecting the user’s distribution. If there is a slash at the end, PkgBase will assume you know what you are doing and will do nothing. This is to accommodate the use of page anchors at the end of URLs, so if you give someone a URL like http://pkgb.net/firefox/#gentoo, PkgBase will assume that you actually want to point to the Gentoo section and not try to guess itself.

There is a lot more that can be done with the site, and I’m still working on making it as easy as possible to install packages with no confusion. PackageKit would be a great option for this, though some client-side JavaScript will be needed to detect for the PackageKit plugin.

Feel free to use PkgBase anywhere you like. URLs are guaranteed to be permanent. I would love to hear your suggestions on how to improve the service.

Package managers make life on Linux a whole lot easier. Instead of managing bits of software by yourself and sorting out the inevitable dependency hell, where one package depends upon another and that depends upon yet another and so on, you can have a clever bit of software do all the work.

Debian, Ubuntu and other derivatives use the .deb package format and Aptitude (Apt for short) as the package manager.

However, there are some occasions when your package manager can hinder, rather than help. It may end up insisting on installing or upgrading something you don't want, or upgrading something you want left alone at its current version. Its persistence could extend to your update manager on your desktop nagging you every five minutes - wouldn't it be nice to shut it up?

To avoid this problem, Apt users can specify to put specific packages on hold, preventing them from being upgraded or installed. Of course, you can easily remove this restriction later.

To do this, first install the Wajig program, which offers a simple command line interface to Dpkg and Apt.

$ sudo apt-get install wajig

Once the program is installed, you can put a package on hold, so it will be ignored by Apt, like so:

$ sudo wajig hold package

When you now go to upgrade or install new packages, you will not be pestered to update that package.

Naturally, when you want to remove this restriction, simply run the command again with 'unhold':

$ sudo wajig unhold package

Also, if at any time you want to see the list of packages that are on hold, run:

$ sudo wajig list-hold

A simple solution to what can be a rather irritating problem.

[image source]

Recent releases of Ubuntu have a feature where the installation CD can be used as a repository for installing software, just like any repository on the web.

The advantage of this, obviously, is it means that you can save bandwidth for some packages that haven't been updated since the release, or even sometimes be able to install new packages without an internet connection at all. The main disadvantage - the CD has to be in the drive.

And when you get asked for that CD when installing something, and you really don't feel like finding it on your messy desk, or wherever it's hiding, it can be frustrating.

Thankfully, it's pretty easy to switch off the support for installing from the CD. In Ubuntu (the normal Gnome version), go to System > Administration > Software Sources. On Kubuntu, head to the Adept Manager application, then go to Adept > Manage Repositories.

In both cases, you'll get a dialogue looking something like this. Go to the Third Party Software tab.

In there, simply untick the entry starting with cdrom: (the top one in my screenshot) and close. You might be asked to reload the software lists, so do so.

And that's it. The CD should be disabled, and you'll always go online to download new packages.