How to install software on Linux Mint

[guerin-Tyron]

This is a must read for beginners like me. I think you should send this as a message to those who are running linux for the first time.

[1Canuck]

Can I delete a .deb file that I downloaded from an external source, after the program has successfully installed? I installed a Citrix receiver client so that I can work from home for my employer and all is functioning perfectly. To accomplish this I had to download a .deb file from Citrix.com in order to get the client program on my computer. Now that it’s installed and working properly, can I delete the original .deb file that is currently sitting in my Downloads folder, without inadvertently removing the entire program from my computer? In Windows we can delete the .exe file(s) after we’ve installed a program and nothing is affected, but I wasn’t sure if this was the same case in Linux. Thanks in advance for your assistance and for this thread!

[xenopeek]

Can I delete a .deb file that I downloaded from an external source, after the program has successfully installed?

Yes, the file is just needed for the installation. Also if you want to remove an installed program, you don't need the .deb file for that. Sometimes it can be handy to have the .deb file for easily reinstalling the program, for example if it was broken for some reason. But you could always download it again.

[1Canuck]

Can I delete a .deb file that I downloaded from an external source, after the program has successfully installed?

Yes, the file is just needed for the installation. Also if you want to remove an installed program, you don't need the .deb file for that. Sometimes it can be handy to have the .deb file for easily reinstalling the program, for example if it was broken for some reason. But you could always download it again.

Great, good to know. Thanks for that info Xenopeek.

[andy chung]

Further related question on it.

How do I remove the program installed which I downloaded via external source .deb file?

Would the program be shown in my software manager where I could press the remove button? tks

[AlbertP]

I've never tried that with Software Manager, but since it works with Synaptic Package Manager, I think Software Manager should do it too.

[hal8000]

Can I install a package compiled for an earlier Mint Distribution on Linux Mint 14 KDE ?

I have not yet installed Linux Mint 14 (Nadia) but want to install the Qucs package:

http://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/qucs

The above packages were compiled for earlier versions of Lisa and Isadora
so theres a good chance they are looking for different libraries and may not work,
can anyone confirm if this is the case?

I suppose another option is to try and compile from source.
Thanks in advance for help.

[xenopeek]

The above packages were compiled for earlier versions of Lisa and Isadora
so theres a good chance they are looking for different libraries and may not work,
can anyone confirm if this is the case?

Not sure, but as Linux Mint uses Ubuntu as a package base I'd normally search the Ubuntu package base for such packages. You can do that at http://packages.ubuntu.com/. Searching for qucs indeed shows it isn't available for Linux Mint 14 (which is based on Ubuntu quantal) though it is available for Linux Mint 13 (which is based on Ubuntu precise). BTW, you can check at http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php which Ubuntu package base is used by your Linux Mint release.

So qucs is available for Linux Mint 13, here: http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/qucs. From that page it looks like perhaps it might work on Linux Mint 14. At the bottom you can click your architecture (amd64 for 64 bit, i386 for 32 bit) and then download this package. You can then double-click it in your file manager and GDebi will open and offer to install it if all libraries that are needed are found.

However, it appears there is no active maintainer for qucs and thus it hasn't been packaged for the Ubuntu base used with Linux Mint 14. That sometimes happens; if nobody is interested in maintaining a package and it isn't something that is needed for the core system then it is removed from the repositories. Also Debian, which in turn is used as a package base by Ubuntu, has remove this package due to lack of an active maintainer: http://packages.qa.debian.org/q/qucs.html.

You may try the download as described above, but yes it might turn to you needing to compile from source. You can ask for help with that in the Software & Applications section of the forum. But hopefully it will just go as described in this topic

[icocio]

Thanks for all this information

[egimartanugraha]

Thanks for this great explanation..
btw im new here as also to linux