Stuff that has not yet gone into the official build.
Post a reply

software installers

Sun Jul 15, 2012 7:45 pm

I got the deepin iso, booted it, downloaded the Deepin Software Center .deb file and tried to install it on my wheezy build. Dependency libc-ares2_1.8.0-1_i386.deb was not available, and I didn't investigate beyond that. Aptitude showed that installing the deps would use 8265 kb. Installing Synaptic without recommends would use 7875 kb.

Installing software-center from the debian repo would use 41.7 mb. Uh-huh... Synaptic is looking better and better.

aptitude-gtk is not available in i386 or amd64 (yet?)

for 8 mb, I'd probably go with Snaptic. Would it require much more when installed on a kde system?

Any other graphical software installers we should consider?

Re: software installers

Sun Jul 15, 2012 8:04 pm

Installed synaptic.
Added the directive to exclude recommends and suggests in apt.conf as described by anticapitalista.
Had to edit /usr/share/applications/synaptic.desktop to get it to start from menu. Changed "Exec=synaptic-pkexec" to "Exec=gksu synaptic"
Checked to make sure Synaptic obeys apt.conf. It does.

Still open to other options, but I think this is a good choice.

Re: software installers

Sun Jul 15, 2012 9:21 pm

You will probably need to install apt-xapian-index with synaptic otherwise users may complain (they did for antiX when we shipped without it).

I can't think of any better options, apart from apt itself of course.

For the synaptic-pkexec/gksu synaptic issue (I have done the same as you for antiX), apparently gksu will become obselete in the distant future and is replaced by various policykit/consolekit/udisks set ups. IIRC installing those three will 'allow' synaptic-pkexec to work. (gparted has the same issue btw)

Re: software installers

Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:06 am

synaptic works, my kids manage to use it although they originally needed a pointer regarding clicking "apply" to actually install

I just suggested deepin because it is "big install button" simple. If you want me to build a deb so you can try it out then just let me know.

All I use is apt and aptitude.

If I install refracta for someone else I add this, remove that, tweak this and that, so for me what is installed by default is not all that important.

Re: software installers

Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:48 pm

I think synaptic is a good option. But to be honest: i barely know any other gui-tools. I think it is good to have a gui-package-manager installed by default, which one doesn't matter (so people who don't feel comfortable with the cli can install packages they want without the need to ask in a forum how to install a graphical package manager...). Which one, i think, is less important. To me synaptic looks intuitive and reliable (while it lacks the shiny-and-new-feeling).

Re: software installers

Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:00 am

I use only apt-get for installing, nothing against other methods, it's just what I understand best. Synaptic is a good option for the less cli-literate.

Synaptic is also excellent for just package browsing; definitely should be included.
Post a reply