Can't install anything

[T3hMikey]

I just recently got Debian up and running with the X Windows System thing. Well, I tried to download and install some basic things. Nothing special. Just AIM and Yahoo Messenger. I followed the instructions on the site, but it would always give me an error. The error says

dpkg: error processing aim_1.5.286-2.i386.deb (--install):
cannot access archive: No such file or directory
Errors were encountered while processing:
aim_1.5.286-2.i386.deb

I same for Yahoo Messenger, just replace the aim thing with the yahoo one.

I eventually gave up on that and just went back to the Windows partition on my hard drive for a while to finish downloading something. I finally came back, but had given up on AIM and was trying to install AYTTM (Are You Talking To Me), which basically let my use AIM, MSN, etc. all in one program. Again, followed the instructions as it said, and again, failed to work.

What on Earth is going on? Why does it keep erroring? Is it a problem in settings somewhere or something? I'm logged in as root when I try it, so that can't be it.

[Lavene]

The prefered way to install stuff on Debian is through Debians package management system APT. Either through the commandline using 'apt-get' or 'aptitude', or using your GUI you can use 'Synaptic'.

A nice instant messenger client for Linux is GAIM. It support all major protocols. Another one, my personal favorite, is Kopete. Yet another one is AMSN.

Anyway, to install...say GAIM... you would do it like this:

Open a terminal and become root then do:

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apt-get install gaim

And that's it. Gaim will be installed and all dependencies will be taken care of. This is the Debian way to install software.

Recomednded reading:

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man apt-get
man aptitude
man apt-cache

Enjoy!

Tina

[lacek]

dpkg is used to install already-downloaded files. So, if you type

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dpkg -i whatever.deb

it simply looks for whatever.deb in the current directory, and tries to install that package if it can be found. If the file isn't there, you get the error message.
You should use the apt-get program to install packages, because it downloads the packages, and handles depedencies as well:

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apt-get install whatever

Note that you don't need to specify the version or the .deb extension.
Or you can use front-ends like aptitude, synaptic or kpackage. Also, there are packages with which you can use AIM and/or Yahoo messenger. Try installing kopete or gaim. The former is for KDE and the latter is for Gnome, as far as I know, but of course you can use the one you like, no matter what display/window manager do you use.

[cyb.nix]

1. Go to /etc/apt
2. look for sources.list file.
3. post here.

[Lavene]

1. Go to /etc/apt
2. look for sources.list file.
3. post here.

• 1. When helping people it's a good practice to follow the 'flow' of the previous posts. The people taking on a question probably have a plan for followups.
  2. If you want to brake the 'flow' it's a good practice to explain why.
  3. If you request some info it's also a good practice to explain why.
  4. Just butting in with these numbered posts completly ignoring a started conversation is starting to get anoying, rude and disrespectfull. And re #1, very confusing for the person being helped.
  5. I know who you are

Honestly, sometimes I sense lack of respect for each other. If you (that is.. all of us) has something constructing to add to an ongoing conversation by all means go ahead. But if you just want to show off... make a homepage and brag about your self. It's not a competition, it's about helping each other.

Personaly I don't mind people adding stuff to a thread I'm involved in but I like some common courtesy. Corrections is great, additions also great. But thread hijacking by breaking the 'flow' of a thread is not that cool.

Give the people in a thread some credit and assume they know what they are doing. And if you think they don't know what they are doing; be polite.

Lets be... well... nice
Tina

[T3hMikey]

Here's the contents of the source.list file:

#deb file:///cdrom/ sarge main

deb ftp://mirrors.geeks.org/debian/ stable main
deb-src ftp://mirrors.geeks.org/debian/ stable main

deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main

I'd try what the rest of you posted, but I'm in the middle of downloading something big. I'll do it here in a while.

[Lavene]

Here's the contents of the source.list file:

#deb file:///cdrom/ sarge main

deb ftp://mirrors.geeks.org/debian/ stable main
deb-src ftp://mirrors.geeks.org/debian/ stable main

deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main

I'd try what the rest of you posted, but I'm in the middle of downloading something big. I'll do it here in a while.

You might want to add the 'contrib' and 'non-free' repositories while you're at it. Sadly some non-free programmes are still fairly essential...

As root, open the /etc/apt/sources.list in a text editor and edit these two lines to read:

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deb ftp://mirrors.geeks.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://mirrors.geeks.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free

Tina

[cyb.nix]

souces.list

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deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stable main
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stable main
deb http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/ stable main
deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib

Gaim Installation

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apt-get install gaim

It should be able to install Gaim provided you use the above mentioned sources.list file.

[Lavene]

Yeah... a completly different one, without the contrib/ non-free...
Not at all confusing for newbies... not at all.

I'm wasting my time here.

Tina

[cyb.nix]

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debian:/etc/apt# apt-get install gaim
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  gaim-data libao2 libgtkspell0
Suggested packages:
  evolution-data-server libzephyr3 tcl8.4 tk8.4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gaim gaim-data libao2 libgtkspell0
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3759kB of archives.
After unpacking 11.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://ftp.uk.debian.org stable/main gaim-data 1:1.2.1-1.4 [2839kB]
Get:2 http://ftp.uk.debian.org stable/main libao2 0.8.6-1 [23.2kB]
Get:3 http://ftp.uk.debian.org stable/main libgtkspell0 2.0.10-1 [18.3kB]
Get:4 http://ftp.uk.debian.org stable/main gaim 1:1.2.1-1.4 [879kB]
Fetched 3759kB in 1m23s (44.8kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package gaim-data.
(Reading database ... 73746 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking gaim-data (from .../gaim-data_1%3a1.2.1-1.4_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libao2.
Unpacking libao2 (from .../libao2_0.8.6-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libgtkspell0.
Unpacking libgtkspell0 (from .../libgtkspell0_2.0.10-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package gaim.
Unpacking gaim (from .../gaim_1%3a1.2.1-1.4_i386.deb) ...
Setting up gaim-data (1.2.1-1.4) ...
Setting up libao2 (0.8.6-1) ...

Setting up libgtkspell0 (2.0.10-1) ...

Setting up gaim (1.2.1-1.4) ...

debian:/etc/apt#