Ade Malsasa Akbar contact
Senior author, Open Source enthusiast.
Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 13:22

GDebi Package Installer Beginner Guide



We've written a guide about Synaptic previously. Now we need to write about GDebi. GDebi is a package manager to install a single .deb package in Ubuntu. GDebi will help you resolve dependencies automatically by right-clicking on the package file. We will give two different examples to use GDebi here.


Install GDebi

 

 


To use GDebi in Ubuntu, you must install it first. Use Ubuntu Software Center to do it.


First Example


This first example is suitable for a single package from packages.ubuntu.com. Most case is when you download a single package only without its dependency packages. To complete dependencies, you use GDebi to automatically resolve and download all dependencies.


1. Obtain A Package from packages.ubuntu.com

 

We are using Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr so we give example how to download package for trusty. If you are using 15.04 Vivid Vervet, change trusty with vivid and vice versa. We will download inkscape package (a vector drawing application).



  1. Open http://packages.ubuntu.com.
  2. In the Search package directories section, select Distribution: trusty, then search inkscape. Don't make any changes except those.
  3. On the Package hits section, you will notice trusty link with Inkscape description. Click that link. 
  4. On the Package: inkscape page, you will notice so many packages listed down. They are dependencies for inkscape package. See the Download table on the most bottom of page. There are amd64 and i386 choices. If you are using 32 bit then select i386 otherwise select amd64.
  5. On the Download page, there are many links for inkscape package. So select one link. We choose North America mirror.
  6. You've been downloaded inkscape package. In our example, the file name is inkscape_0.48.4-3ubuntu2_i386.deb. Usually Firefox saves the file on Downloads folder except you select the destination.

2. Install The Package & Its Dependencies



To demonstrate how to install a package (from Ubuntu official repository) with GDebi, we will install a single inkscape package. You must enable your internet connection to do this. Or, you have a complete copy of Ubuntu 14.04 repository (or repository of your version of Ubuntu) in DVD or local HDD.


  1. Open Nautilus file manager to the downloaded package.
  2. Right-click package > Open With > GDebi Package Installer. 
  3. GDebi window will appear. You will probably see warning Same version is available in software channel. It means the inkscape package you invoke is installable from repository, don't need to use GDebi. Ignore it.
  4. You will see dependencies number in GDebi for inkscape package. In our 14.04, the dependencies needed is three (Requires the installation of 3 packages).
  5. Press Install Package button. 
  6. Let GDebi download and install all dependencies including inkscape package. 
  7. Installation finished. Go check for Inkscape in Ubuntu menu.

Second Example


This second example is suitable for a single package which is not available in Ubuntu official repository. GDebi is far better to install this kind of package, compared to Synaptic and USC. We take Google Chrome package as example.

1. Obtain The Package

 

  1. Go to https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop.
  2. Download the .deb package. 
  3. In our example, the file name is google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb.

2. Install The Package & Its Dependencies

 


  1. Open Nautilus file manager to the package downloaded. 
  2. Right-click package file > Open With > GDebi Package Installer.
  3. GDebi will appear. Press Install Package button.
  4. Let GDebi download all dependencies and install them all. 
  5. Go check for Google Chrome on Ubuntu menu.

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