On Friday 06 April 2007 23:04, Scott Berry wrote: > Nigel, > > I got synaptic set up for my father can you tell him how to use Synaptic > please. He would sure appreciate it. He especially needs to know how to > search for pygtk2 and ensure thaty it gets installed properly. Thanks a > bunch. > > Scott Hi Scott. Ok, this is how I go about it. Yum is now installed as default for getting updates for the system, but I've always used "apt" , and "synaptic", the GUI that works with apt, for updating the system, and have done so since the days of FC1. This stuff needs to be done as root, so open the CLI (Konsole), and type su, press ENTER, then give your root password, and ENTER again. Type. yum install apt Which should install it. You say you have already installed synaptic. I normally install apt first followed by synaptic, but hopefully it will still work ok. Next, check that the fedora repo's are active in /etc/apt/sources.list.d . Do this by typing gedit or kwrite, or whatever text editor you want to use. When it opens, click on filesystem, followed by, (and on the right), "etc", followed by "apt", and lastly "sources.list.d". There are 3 text files there. Just click on the first one, and check that the second line down doesn't have a "#" at the start of it. I think you will find that they are not commented out with a "#". If there is no "#" on the second line, just close the text editor, and we'll now move on. Type. apt-get update This will take about 30mins if your on dialup like me. After that has run to completion, you can type. apt-get dist-upgrade This will tell you if any updates are available, the size of the update, and ending with a Y/n asking what you want to do. If there are loads, leave them till later, and type "n" (without the double quotes), which will abort the upgrade. Now type. synaptic You are still su'ed to root arn't you? Synaptic will open. First click on "Settings>Preferences", and check the box under "Appearance". You get some good info for each package at the bottom of the window by doing this. Click on Apply, and OK. Now click on "Reload", which will update synaptic's package list. This is very quick, as synaptic works in conjunction with apt, which you have already run an "apt-get update" on. I normally just scroll down the list of packages if I'm looking for something, but you can use the "Search" button, that is if you know the package name. To install a package, pygtk2 for example, just right click on the package, select "Mark for Installation", which will set a yellow arrow on the package, then click the "Apply" button. A window opens telling you what is going to be installed. If the package has dependencies, they will be listed here, but you will have been already notified of that fact by a window that shows the dependencies, with a button named "Mark". Clicking on that marks the necessary packages on synaptic's package list. Ok. We've clicked apply, and the window that's opened tells us what is going to be installed. If you are happy with this, click it's "Apply" button, and the package/s will be downloaded and installed on your machine. Synaptic is really simple to use, and I use it when looking for specific packages, but for updating the system I normally use apt-get on the CLI, first doing an. apt-get update Which updates the package list, followed by. apt-get dist-upgrade Which will download and install the latest updates. Apt stores it's downloaded archives in /var/cache/apt/archives, and unlike Yum which as default cleans the archive when it has finished installing updates, apt retains the archive. After a while this can take up significant diskspace, and unless you have a particular reason for saving the archives like I have, you can run the command, as root, on the CLI. apt-get clean. Hope this is of some help to your father. Feel free to ask for more info if you need it. Nigel.
