Synaptic
Brief Guide to Working with Synaptic
Synaptic is a graphical interface for the APT package management program. With Synaptic, you can manage package sources (repositories), get information about available packages, install/remove/update packages, and perform keyword searches among available packages.
Running
You can run Synaptic:
- from menu of you desktop environment:
- Mate: MATE menu ▷ Applications ▷ Preferences ▷ Synaptic Package Manager;
- KDE: Applicaton Menu ▷ Settings ▷ Synaptic (Package Manager);
- Xfce: Applications ▷ Settings ▷ Package Manager;
- from terminal:
$ synaptic
Before starting, the program will ask you to enter the superuser password:
Immediately after starting, the program window looks like this:
On the right side of the program, there is a list of programs with their current status indicated. When you select a package from the list, information and a description about it are displayed at the bottom.
Package source settings
If you have not yet configured package sources (repositories), select the menu option Settings ▷ Repositories. A window will appear with a list of package sources for your distribution:
For each available repository, several mirrors are specified (e.g., ftp.altlinux.org and mirror.yandex.ru), and three access methods: ftp, http, rsync. Choose the most convenient method for you, such as one that your provider has not blocked, and the fastest server.
The presence of the x86_64-i586 repository is necessary to support 32-bit applications in a 64-bit system. If such support is not required, the repository is also not needed.
A source with the noarch type provides packages identical for both x86 platforms (not used in the case of arm and armh types). Typically, these are data, non-binary libraries for Perl, Python, etc.