Installing a .deb file:

Here is another thing that I learned but do not necessarily understand. On maemo, I found a file manager called canoe I wanted to install. There was no green arrow to install so I went to the homepage. On the homepage was a .deb file for canoe. I clicked on it and a context menu popped up. I tried to open the file with the application manager and it failed to install.

So, clicked on the file again and this time I saved it to my SD card. I then used the application manager to install from file. At that point, it installed seamlessly. So if you have trouble installing a .deb file, try to put it on your SD card and install from there.

Weird, huh? Can anyone explain why this worked?

Installing a .tar or .tar.gz file

My next task is to install apps that are compressed.

here is the general theory -->

1. save the .tar file to your SD in a folder called downloads
2. open up your terminal program
3. navigate to the folder where the file is located using cd (change directory) command. The path should be /media/mmc1/downloads or /media/mmc2/downloads depending on which SD (internal or external) you are using
4. Once you are in the right directory type ls to make sure the file is there. [Ls is like the old dos dir command]. If the file si there then type in:

tar ztvf [filename].tar.gz

5. this command will tell you what's in the compressed file. You are interested in whether a .deb file is in there. (If there is you can install it. If not, you would have to compile it or perhaps execute it, but I'm not ready to try that yet).

6. If there a .deb file you can unzip the file by typing

tar xvf [filename].tar

or

tar zxvf [filename].tar.gz

7. You should then be able to use the app manager to install it by selecting install from file.

I will test this when I get home, but if I got anything wrong please let me know so I can edit the post.

If you are old enough this should bring you back fond memories of DOS days. Linux is so similar to DOS, I have a hard time not typing in the DOS commands on the terminal line.