Install Deb Programs Manually
Some times your disto’s repository may not have a program you want to install or the newest version of one you have installed. So how to install Deb programs manually with dpkg from a command terminal.
- Go to the website you want to download your program from and save it to your home directory. Example: /home/bob
- Open a Terminal Window
- Before you start your install, make sure you don’t have any other *.deb files in your home directory, Don’t want to re-install old programs.
- Type in the following command: sudo dpkg -i *.deb
- If all goes well the program should install without any errors. If you get errors, it’s likely that you need some extra dependence’s that are not in the *.deb package. If that’s true then open Synaptic Package Manager. When it opens, it should say you have Broken Packages. Go to Edit on the menu and select Fix Broken Packages. You can also fix broken packages from the terminal window by copying and pasting sudo apt-get install -f answer Y when asked and thats it. If all goes well, your program should now work. Go to your Menu button of your distro and find your program.
Example: To install the Google Chrome web browser. Open Firefox and go to www.google.com. In the search box type in Chrome. Click on the Download button and select the version you need. Either the 32 bit or the 64 bit for deb. Save to your Home directory or move to there after the download is complete. Now once the downloaded file is in your Home directory, (Example: /home/bob) copy this into a Terminal Window and hit enter. sudo dpkg -i *.deb This command will run any deb package in your home directory. So you can install multiple deb packages at one time.
Debian packages are standard Unix ar archives that include two tar archives optionally compressed with gzip(zlib), Bzip2, lzma, or xz (lzma2): one archive holds the control information and another contains the program data.
The accepted program for handling these packages is dpkg, most commonly via other programs such as apt/aptitude, the Ubuntu Software Center, Synaptic or Gdebi.
Debian packages can be converted into other packages and vice versa using alien, and created from source code using CheckInstall or Debian Package Maker.
Some core Debian packages are available as udebs (“micro debs”), and are typically used only for bootstrapping a Debian installation. Although these files use theudeb filename extension, they adhere to the same structure specification as ordinary deb files. However, unlike their deb counterparts, udeb packages contain only essential functional files.[2] In particular, documentation files are normally omitted. udeb packages are not installable on a standard Debian system.