DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: Install Script for Synaptic

Maybe writing that long post caused my brain to actually think!

It was a badly installed tar.

In several places in these forums there are references to installing a full version of tar by the following:

wget http://grimthing.com/downloads/tar
rm /bin/tar
mv tar /bin

The above is fine but for us hopeless new linux users, the following is needed to allow tar to actually function:

cd /bin
chmod 755 tar

Aplogies for the long (and boring post) but am new at this stuff.

Me again!

The synaptic dialog indicates that, for example, the editor 'joe' is installed but when I try to use it is not installed. There are various 'joe' related files in /var/lib/dpkg/info/ but it does not appear to be installed.

Also, for example, 'Sylpheed' is installed (as the DSL default) but the synaptic dialog indicates that it is not installed.

Why these apparent contradictions?

Two reasons:

(1) Some software was probably installed in older versions of DSL and then manually deleted. This would explain why the program is still showing in the Synaptic installed list. Try removing it and then re-installing it in order to download it correctly.

(2) Some DSL programs were not installed using the standard Debian apt-get (Aka: Synaptic list) dpkg method. These programs were custom compiled by John and inserted directly into the DSL distro. For example, GLinks and Dillo are both "hacked" versions of the normal Glinks and Dillo. The "hacks" that were added include many helpful features that are not contained in the normal or "official" versions that you can download from the apt-get Synpatic lists.

Hi dsl lovers,

I just tested the latest start_synaptic script on the hdd installed version of dsl 0.7, and it worked in 5 seconds!!! Thanks for zriting this script!!

Dukkieduk :-)

original here.