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Adding extra Repositories on Ubuntu

Repositories on Ubuntu are the locations that you can download software from. As a general rule, the default repositories don't contain the right locations for most software packages that you'll want to install. You will want to open up the /etc/apt/sources.list file, find and uncomment the following lines

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper universe main restricted universe

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe

Note that if you are using a different version than Dapper Drake (6.06), you will probably see a different name there, something like breezy or edgy.

Once you are done adding the repositories, you'll need to run this command:

sudo apt-get update

(Thanks to Gregg in the comments for catching that)

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 09/11/06 and tagged with: Ubuntu, Adding Software

Comments (7)

  1. Bill Farina

    I tried to locate POPfile and ended up uncommenting all of the commented out command lines, but couldn't find it anywhere.

  2. Gregg Rawson

    Don't forget to run "sudo apt-get update" after adding the repositories to resynchronize the package index files.

  3. The Geek

    Good catch, Gregg…. I'm surprised I didn't include that in the first place.

  4. UbuntuN00b

    Hi
    I'm completely new to Linux and I have no idea about command lines and things like that. I can use Ubuntu at a basic level and I totally love it. However, I wish there was a A-Z guide on how to install software on Ubuntu.

    For example, when you say "You will want to open up the /etc/apt/sources.list file, find and uncomment the following lines" I wonder where to go and open it and what is uncomment etc. Please help! I want to install Enlightenment on my Ubuntu!

  5. TuxKnowledge.com

    Well You just said it. Basically you need a crash course in Linux Command Line

    If your a mouse person Enlightenment will be great for you. Personally I am a keyboard guy and don't like it.

    /etc/apt/sources.list is the location and file that contains a list of the sources apt-get looks at to find a package to install. In this file a line beginning with # indicates a commented line. Without knowing command line I would say login to your graphical enviornment as root, and use gedit (Text Editor) to Modify this file. You want to open the file sources.list which can be found in the directory /etc/apt/

    After you have modified this as needed, which I recommend only doing the above line exactly as stated. After doing this open a terminal and run "apt-get update" without the quotations. Then you can run "apt-get install enlightenment" without the quotations. This should install enlightenment for you if it is not already installed. you could login and then as root run "init 3″ to switch to command line, then run "startx –enlightenment" to see if it is installed. Most of the time it is not.

  6. Dirk

    Geek, your site is awesome. I don’t know if you aim at the very high geeks or the beginner/moderate geeks as some of us are.UbuntuN00b is really a newbie and seems enthusiastic about Linux :-)
    Maybe you could include a "beginner's column" or something like that. A lot of us learnt Windows by get tips over the years from others more experienced , in Linux , it`s a lot harder to find someone to get you out of trouble :-)
    I run Kurumin Linux which is a Brazlian distro based on Knoppix for about a year now and love it!
    Cheers

  7. Laurence Lefavour

    How do you install games you download in Ubuntu 7.10 from here?


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