AddingRepositoriesHowto

How to add [Repositories] to your sources.list

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/htdocs/lostimages/IconHelp.png

This page will discuss how to add other [Repositories] to your /etc/apt/sources.list. I will also show how to uncomment universe.

Index

• Uncommenting Universe
• Using Synaptic
• Using Terminal
• Adding outside repositories
• Adding outside repositories using Synaptic
• Adding outside repositories using a Terminal

Uncommenting Universe

Using Synaptic

To uncomment the universe repository follow these instructions.

Start Synaptic Package Manager from the Computer, System Configuration menu

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/htdocs/lostimages/PicSelectSynapticFromtheMenu.png

When Synaptic started choose in the Settings menu the item [Repositories].

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/htdocs/lostimages/PicOpentheRepositoriesDialog.png

You see a list of repositories. Use the checkboxes (if checkboxes aren't shown, tick the 'show disabled sources' under settings) in the first column enable or disable a repository. Now you can enable the universe repositories.

Save the changes and close the window by pushing on OK.

Update the list of avaible packages with Reload in the main window.

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/PicApplyTheseSettings.png

After downloading the packages list from the repositories you can install packages from universe.

Using Terminal

You can alternatively use a terminal and command line tools to enable universe. Start Terminal from Applications, System Tools in the menubar.

Type in the command line:

   bash:~$ sudo nano -w /etc/apt/sources.list

The texteditor nano starts and open the configuration file for repositories. Than you will want to remove the # marks from infront of the lines that look like this:

   #deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary universe
   #deb-src ftp://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary universe

and remove the #, and add the word multiverse making them look like this:

   deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary universe multiverse
   deb-src ftp://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary universe multiverse

Afterwards, you update your sources with the following command:

   bash:~$ sudo apt-get update

Adding outside repositories

Sometimes other users will make repositories for packages they have made. It is real easy to add these repositories to your system package manager.

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Note: You need to be careful doing this, some outside packages could break your Ubuntu install

For a list of outside repositories see BreakMyUbuntu.

Adding outside repositories using Synaptic

As shown in the Using Synaptic screenshot above, start Synaptic Package Manager from the Computer menu, System Configuration item. Once Synaptic has launched, choose the Settings menu, [Repositories] item.

You now see a window with a list of repositories. Push the button New to add a repository. Type in the information about the repositories in the dropdown menu and three textfields according to the following examples.

Normally you find websites providing information about a repository in a form like the following example:

   deb http://www.grawert.net/ubuntu/ warty universe

This line provides the information for the Synaptic fields.

* deb means it is a binary, so use the drop-down list to choose binary. Normally this is the default setting.

* http://www.grawert.net/ubuntu/ is the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), which means in this case the location.

* warty is the release name.

* universe is the section name.

Sometimes the repository line has less information though, as shown in the next example.

   deb http://www.getsweaaa.com/~tseng/ubuntu/debs ./ 

The first two fields (deb and URI) are clearly similar to the first example above. However, the release-name is "./" so just put this (without the quotes) in the release field of Synaptic. It looks weird, but simply specifies the release as being whatever is in the directory given by the URI. Furthermore, there is no section information so just leave that text field blnk in your Synaptic entry.

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Note: Only the section information is optional, and then only with respect to the repository-maintainer. If there is section information, it must be specifed in Synaptic. It cannot be left blank.

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/htdocs/lostimages/IconNote.png

Note: If you make a mistake with the syntax in the fields you will get an error when you click the OK button in Synaptic. One cause is putting a trailing slash at the end of the URI. Also beware of leaving whitespaces at the beginning/end of the fields.

Save the changes and close the window by pushing on OK.

Update the list of avaible packages with Reload in the main window. After downloading the packages list from the repositories you can install packages from universe.

Adding outside repositories using the Terminal

You can alternatively use a terminal and command line tools to enable other repositories. Start Terminal from Applications, System Tools in the menubar.

Type in the command line:

This example uses tseng's repository.

   bash:~$ echo deb http://www.getsweaaa.com/~tseng/ubuntu/debs ./ | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

You would just substitute the deb http://www.getsweaaa.com/~tseng/ubuntu/debs ./ with any other outside repositories name.

From GrahamTapper Fri May 6 12:35:47 +0100 2005 From: Graham Tapper Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 12:35:47 +0100 Subject: Use the checkbox in the first column... Message-ID: <20050506123547+0100@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

This had me baffled as the list of repositories I was looking at had no checkboxes and there was no reference to an "universe" ones anyway. It wasn't until I clicked "Settings" that I found that there is a checkbox you have to enable first so as to display all disabled repostories. Not until you do that do you see the missing repositories and get the missing checkboxes for each so as to enable/disable them.