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Topic: Synaptic program install, Install progs but hard to find later on

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Harpoon

Group: Members
Posts: 2
Joined: Sep. 2006

Posted: Sep. 07 2006,08:56

Hi Guys

DSL is really nice. Good working on my old acer 500Mhz.
I have downloaded and installed several progs through Synaptic. I have some trouble finding the installed progs and getting to use them. Where is the most likely place I should look for them. Why can't they be installed so I can use them right from the desktop. I would be a whole more convenient.

Thanks guys. :cool:

Harpoon

mikshaw

Group: Members
Posts: 4856
Joined: July 2004

Posted: Sep. 07 2006,14:26

There are at least a couple of reasons I can think of why they are not installed so they can be automatically available from the desktop.

1) Debian packages are not made for DSL. The DSL system supports Debian packages only as far as its included libs and applications allow, and only as far as the built-in features of dpkg, apt, and synaptic allow.

2) Icons in Debian packages are included or excluded at the discretion of the people who build these packages, and usually if they are included they support, at most, the desktops of KDE and/or Gnome.

If you know the name of your application, the command or commands to run that application are usually very similar. Also, Debian packages nearly always install their executables in /usr/bin, which is in your path. open a terminal and type the first few characters in the application's name, then press Tab. If your characters are correct, the terminal should fill in the rest. If that doesn't work, look in the documentation for the program. It will almost always show you what command to use, and how to use it. Documentation is usually available at the website of the program's developer(s), and with Deb packages you probably have manual pages installed in /usr/share/man/ or something similar.
If all else fails, look through the files in /usr/bin. You should see something that looks like the program name.

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http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html

brianw

Group: Members
Posts: 245
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: Sep. 10 2006,02:01

To add to mikshaw's explanation. When you install using synaptic the program name will almost always be the name of the package that you install. As mikshaw stated /usr/bin is common. also /usr/local/bin, /usr/games, /usr/local/games will cover 99% of installs. If the package is a generic name for a package of tools or games (i.e. junior-arcade, bsd-utils, etc...) there will be a list of app names in the dependency tab on synaptic.

Something I use alot is:

sudo find / -name "*<part of name>*"

to find where things are installed. If you want a graphical find then there is a mydsl app (gtkfind.dsl or something like that). You can also use dpkg -L <package name> will list files for that package.

Also, as mikshaw says, the developer couldn't possibly build icons for all window managers avaialble to linux (they only do the two most popular and maybe for the one they use but probably not even that).

Harpoon

Group: Members
Posts: 2
Joined: Sep. 2006

Posted: Sep. 10 2006,10:05

Thank u two very much! I have now seen how it works. There are some minor difficulties with dsl on my computer (Acer laptop).
Copy / past functions work only inside some programs. X will sometimes reject my keyboard setup. So I can't use "@" to write mail adresses.
I have installed netscape and it will also start (under user: DSL), but when I use a menu in the prog or I'm trying to type a web adress I starts downloading some homepages (quiet fast) and closes down in a blink of an eye. (It's unusable)
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Something else... I tried to install some new Linux versions...like knoppix and Mandriva... but under startup it displays problems with IRQ 15 (it happens around config of cd-rom drive recognition). There are no problems with dsl. It's strange, there have not been any problems with old Linux versions e.g. SUSE 7.0.
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I know most of what I'm writing about is not related to the topic but I hope you're ok with it.

Thank u again!

3 replies since Sep. 07 2006,08:56

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