Howto Apt-get

Howto setup your default /etc/apt/sources.list to get apt working for you. See also apt-get configuration and the authoritative Apt-Howto.

Apt-sources

To run a debian-based system, you need a list of sources from where to download packages from. This list of apt sources is in /etc/apt/sources.list You can create this list by manually adding your own source URLs, copying some from official debian mirrors list, or running netselect-apt as root to automatically populate your /etc/apt/sources.list file with fast mirrors.

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Configure some aliases in your regular user’s .bashrc, and use sudo. Also need to add your user to the /etc/sudoers file.

# Aliases to put in ~/.bashrc for use of apt-get
alias acs='apt-cache search'
alias acsh='apt-cache show'
alias agud='sudo apt-get update'
alias agug='sudo apt-get upgrade'
alias agi='sudo apt-get install'
alias agr='sudo apt-get remove'
alias agc='sudo apt-get clean'

# Add user 'guest' in /etc/sudoers to have full-use of sudo
# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
guest   ALL=(ALL) ALL

Misc

apt-get -u -t unstable install nmap (upgrade, from -t unstable (sid))
apt-get -f install
dpkg -l ‘REGEX’
dpkg –search FILE-IN-PKG
apt-file search FILE-IN-PKG (very useful to finde which deb pkg contains a file)
dpkg –get-selections | grep ‘REGEX’
dpkg –get-selections > myselections.txt
dpkg –set-selections < myselections.txt
apt-show-versions -p PKG-NAME
dselect

Hack Installs

Skype on Ubuntu

Found this post online for rebuilding a .deb package for skype. This guide recommended changing the Depends: line in the .deb package control file from “libqt3c102-mt” to “libqt3-mt” – which didn’t work for me as apt reported this an outdated package. So I just specified what I “did” have installed.

vim tmp/DEBIAN/control
- Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.4.1-3), libqt3c102-mt (>= 3:3.3.3-7ubuntu3), libstdc++5 (>= 1:3.3.4-1), libx11-6 | xlibs (» 4.1.0), libxext6 | xlibs (» 4.1.0)

- Start a shell and switch to root privilege user
# apt-get update
# apt-get install libqt3-mt libstdc++5
# cd
# mkdir skype.tmp
# cd skype.tmp

- Download the latest version of Skype for Linux software visit http://www.skype.com/products/skype/linux/
# wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-deb
# cp skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386.deb skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386.deb.orig
# dpkg-deb --extract skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386.deb.orig skype.tmp
# dpkg-deb --control skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386.deb.orig skype.tmp/DEBIAN

# vi skype.tmp/DEBIAN/control
- Edit the following line in the control file, "libqt3c102-mt" to "libqt3-mt" below:
CURRENT: Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.4.1-3), libqt3c102-mt (>= 3:3.3.3.2), libstdc++5 (>= 1:3.3.4-1), libx11-6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libxext6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0)
NEW: Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.4.1-3), libqt3-mt (>= 3:3.3.3.2), libstdc++5 (>= 1:3.3.4-1), libx11-6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libxext6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0)

# dpkg --build skype.tmp
# mv skype.tmp.deb skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386.deb
# dpkg -i skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386.deb
# exit root shell
$ skype (enter)