Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

Melita · 2016-02-04 22:30

I tried to download Pale Moon browser from it's home page on the Internet. Instead of downloading as a browser ready to use, with an icon on the desktop, it came in as a folder and I deleted it. Is there a special way to do this with linux, when getting applications from the Internet, outside of the repositories?

Thank you

Last edited by Melita (2016-02-04 22:31)

bobby · 2016-02-05 01:47

cc, I installed Palemoon after seeing your post and found it was based on Firefox. Plays Youtube videos without any additional add-ons just like Google Chrome.

Since Chrome is dropping 32bit support this is a good replacement. I only started using Chrome as I needed an out of the box no add-on Youtube playing broswer.

Edited: "THANKS !"

Last edited by bobby (2016-02-05 01:48)

Melita · 2016-02-10 22:54

crosscourt wrote:

Look here as it has a video that explains how to use the installer and how to install Pale Moon.
http://linux.palemoon.org/download/installer
The video makes it very easy to understand.

Thank you. I forgot that direct download and install in Linux is not possible like in Windows.

Regards

Melita · 2016-02-12 20:24

Oh, it worked fine. Thank you very much.

Regards

Basil · 2016-02-21 18:29

Melita #5, Actually it can be quite easy in Linux to install a .deb package downloaded directly from the internet, at least in the right conditions. For example, I can install an entire LibreOffice release consisting of dozens of .deb files with a single command on the folder that they have been unzipped into: sudo dpkg -i *.deb (that is running, e.g. Lubuntu or Debian, but one would think it should work for Q4OS too, although it seems not to)

or something simpler, with Gdebi Package Installer, which is Gnome-based and not available on Q4OS with its strong KDE heritage (although perhaps it could be made to work?)

Point is, I'm startled by the lengthy complexity of the process described on the link on the palemoon page - surely there should be a simpler quicker way to do what is quite a frequent operation, particularly in an environment where the OS is developing rapidly and staple applications nearly as quickly?

Which reminds me - I had Qupzilla and Opera working fine on Q4OS1.4.4 but neither of them, although reportedly installed, emerges from its cave into a window under 1.4.7. Nor does IceDove call loudly enough to a browser, any browser, to produce an observable reaction when I click on a link in an email. Sooo, how can I revert to 1.4.4 with one swooshy wave of apt-get or similar? Roll on Q4OS2.something_stable, but until then I might just stick with 1.4.4

Also, when upgrading from e.g. 1.4.4 to 1.4.7 it took a lot of megabytes to re-install apparently old versions of some apps that would still work with the new OS version. Ummm.

Finally, while on the topic, how can I get rid of a totally gratuitous 90-second delay that appeared from nowhere early in the boot-up sequence and wastes swathes of my time while I am experimenting with all the other issues? One of the things I love(d) about Q4OS is/was the zippy boot and closedown... Make no mistake, I would be happy with Q4OS as my point-to Linux, but after a bit of tidying up, please. Too many things I can't control yet:/

Dai_trying · 2016-02-21 23:08

This post might help with the 90 second delay. I would put money on your swap partition being reformatted by another installation (but not too much )

Last edited by Dai_trying (2016-02-21 23:09)

bobby · 2016-02-22 02:25

(Okay Guys, I would like to even automate this with wget (download) and launch pminstaller with one click. Do you all still think this is not needed for new users ?)

I used the Palemoon Installer for Debian and it installed without any problem on Q4OS but, only after using the terminal. This is the Linux Palemoon Installer page:

http://linux.palemoon.org/download/installer/

It does take a few steps to start the palemoon instalelrs: (1) download it to a Q4OS folder; (2) Double click the archive. (3) Drag out (or copy / past pminstaller in a folder) (4) open up the terminal (5) cd /path-to-the-installer/ (6) And finally execute the palemoon installer like this (from same folder as pminstaller.sh) ./pminstaller.

This will launch the palemoor graphical installer and first box will ask for your sudo password.

It installed no problem.

Also, I use gdebi to install *.deb files on Q4OS as well. debi is in the Debian Jessie Repository and can be installed via terminal like this:

sudo apt-get install gdebi

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  autopoint diffstat gdebi-core gettext gir1.2-atk-1.0 gir1.2-freedesktop
  gir1.2-gdkpixbuf-2.0 gir1.2-gtk-3.0 gir1.2-pango-1.0 gir1.2-vte-2.90
  gnome-icon-theme hardening-includes intltool-debian libapt-pkg-perl
  libarchive-zip-perl libasprintf-dev libcairo-perl libclass-accessor-perl
  libclone-perl libdigest-hmac-perl libdpkg-perl libemail-valid-perl
  libfile-fcntllock-perl libgettextpo-dev libgettextpo0 libglib-perl
  libgtk2-perl libio-pty-perl libio-socket-inet6-perl libio-string-perl
  libipc-run-perl liblist-moreutils-perl libnet-dns-perl
  libnet-domain-tld-perl libnet-ip-perl libpango-perl
  libparse-debianchangelog-perl libperlio-gzip-perl libsocket6-perl
  libsub-name-perl libtext-levenshtein-perl libunistring0 libvte-2.90-9
  libvte-2.90-common lintian make patchutils python3-chardet python3-debian
  python3-pkg-resources python3-six t1utils
Suggested packages:
  gettext-doc libfont-freetype-perl debian-keyring libgtk2-perl-doc
  libhtml-template-perl libxml-simple-perl binutils-multiarch dpkg-dev
  libyaml-perl make-doc python3-setuptools
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  autopoint diffstat gdebi gdebi-core gettext gir1.2-atk-1.0
  gir1.2-freedesktop gir1.2-gdkpixbuf-2.0 gir1.2-gtk-3.0 gir1.2-pango-1.0
  gir1.2-vte-2.90 gnome-icon-theme hardening-includes intltool-debian
  libapt-pkg-perl libarchive-zip-perl libasprintf-dev libcairo-perl
  libclass-accessor-perl libclone-perl libdigest-hmac-perl libdpkg-perl
  libemail-valid-perl libfile-fcntllock-perl libgettextpo-dev libgettextpo0
  libglib-perl libgtk2-perl libio-pty-perl libio-socket-inet6-perl
  libio-string-perl libipc-run-perl liblist-moreutils-perl libnet-dns-perl
  libnet-domain-tld-perl libnet-ip-perl libpango-perl
  libparse-debianchangelog-perl libperlio-gzip-perl libsocket6-perl
  libsub-name-perl libtext-levenshtein-perl libunistring0 libvte-2.90-9
  libvte-2.90-common lintian make patchutils python3-chardet python3-debian
  python3-pkg-resources python3-six t1utils
0 upgraded, 53 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 19.3 MB of archives.
After this operation, 41.3 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

bobby · 2016-02-22 03:19

cc, I agree with you that Q4OS is not that fussy - its Linux. There are several ways to install applications. This means a new user will have to learn several different ways to installs; Soon or Later.

It took me 2 months to learn them all. Windows 10, you just click a link and boom its installed. We have Auto Update for system packages and once a program is installed their repository dependicies are auto updated, "Just like Windows".

I struggle with this and its the only thing that keeps me from telling everyone, "Change to Q4OS" its better than Windows in all ways but, its not.

When the learning cure is not in the "Other OS", its a block wall.

bobby · 2016-02-22 03:31

cc, I agree. Anyone who wants to learn a better option will take the time to and just do it. However, when I tell them that printing may be an issue and installing software is for the most part fairly easy, except, there may be times that it won't be so easy. Then I start talking about the Terminal and its a deal breaker. They have that "look of dear in the head lights expression".

What ever Q4OS developers add to their distro will be fine with me but, there is automation for popular applications in the work that are not in the Q4OS Software Centre.

Basil · 2016-02-22 10:01

Thanks for responses. I think Dai_trying #9 may have pointed me somewhat in the right direction although the specific instructions did not reveal anything strange, But when I tried free I got the interesting result for the swap partition of 0 0 0 - i.e., no space assigned. I can imagine Q4OS loader scratching its head for 90 seconds over that little problem, hoping that it would appear over the horizon with profuse apologies for late arrival. Strange still, GParted shows the correct assignment of 3500MB. This remained the state even after I used GParted in the Q4OS session to resize the swap partition, reformat it as Linux swap (v1) and resize it again to original, then shut down, switch off, and do a cold boot from scratch. the version of GParted was as listed on and installed from the Welcome Screen Install Applications box - 0.19.0 even though the open download version is 0.25-something currently.)

This wrong reporting of the swap size could I imagine also be contributing to the reluctance of installed apps to appear on the desktop when requested. Also, perhaps, to an unfortunate tendency for any print jobs to be queued indefinitely (I'm trying to use Q4OS in a production mode, so write documents under it in LibreOffice, but have to close down and print them from LO running under another of my distros. No, I don't want to play VirtualBox until the current mess is sorted.)

Now here's something interesting, I have 3 distros up on my laptop presently, all using the same swap partition of 3500MB (RAM 4GB, shared with video). Note the following results:

LXLE 14.04.3 GParted 3.42GiB free 1819104 0 0 (My long-time reliable buddy,
but irritating)
Debian 8.3 ?? free 3583996 0 0 (Is this really viable for longterm
with all the non-free repo stuff?)
Q4OS1.4.7 GParted 3.42GiB free 0 0 0 (Can I convert XP oldies to this?
not yet...)

so "free" on the command line doesn't feel much obliged to agree with GParted. In my present state of ignorance, I regard this as a worrying discovery.

My state of ignorance: I've been embroiled in doing software on many platforms and architectures for more than 50 years (does that qualify me as a techno-geezer?) so it's a bit difficult to decide whether it's ignorance or Alzheimers'. Would still be using OS.2 if I could afford eComstation.

My hardware platform: Lenovo G585 laptop with dual AMD CPUs, 4GB RAM, 350GB HDU. It gives me perfect service except for one very serious problem: I haven't found a suitable Linux driver for the ElanTech touchpad which means the cursor tends to wander all over the screen, ruining my productivity in creating documents specifically. A bit better when I switch off the mouse, but not reliable. Can't afford to replace it. Got it new with Win7 preloaded, never had this problem until I switched to Linux. Any suggestions?

Hey, I installed Qupzilla from Synaptic on 1.4.3 already. Tried after hassles on 1.4.7 to totally remove it and reinstall, but Synaptic declared it to be broken and refused to remove it. Command-line stuff didn't succeed either.

Thanks for the heads-up on GDebi. The screendump does rather underline how much extra you have to download to make extra things work - the two sides of the Gnome/KDE divide. When I look at the superb elegance and simplicity of K3b for disk-burning, I think "Surely some of that KDE talent could do something similar for installing .deb files?" Some of us don't have unlimited high-speed broadband - I want to take a fully-configured Q4OS+ installation live DVD to prospective XP converts while the windows are still open (pun, sort of). Last time I tried apt-on-cd it wasn't very successful... I really need a DVD full of apps .debs that I can install as and when needed once I've installed a bare-bones Q4OS base. Download Once, Install Many Times. Including Download GDebi Once etc. There are 7 PCs in our house to experiment on, I can tell what works and what doesn't. What costs, and what's efficient.

To my mind, Linux has suffered from having its roots (also a sort-of pun) in large institutions with fat pipes to thousands of users depending on the services of highly skilled BOFHs (hint: read The Register). It hasn't really taken to heart the millions of lone desktop/laptop users who can't carry on using XP, can't afford to get locked into M$'s annuity-income-generating plan, don't have free braodband, and would like to jump ship into something warm, comfortable, dry - and safe. I'm with them. I'm one of them, except I've been down a lot of trails already, know what the options imply, and what options could work for them. So I'm in a hurry for Q4OS to come right. Meanwhile, I have work to push out through the wireless modem at vast expense (roughly the equivalent of a cup of coffee for 10 MB if you aren't careful). Downloading another update of a distro and its associated apps is not a light financial decision for a pensioner for whom that could easily be 3-5 days pension.

Apologies for polemics... I care about this stuff.

Dai_trying · 2016-02-22 13:51

@ Basil I have posted a way of fixing the swap issue here, I hope it helps

Dai

bobby · 2016-02-22 20:15

Basil, Thank you for sharing your feedback.

bobby · 2016-02-23 00:58

crosscourt wrote:

Dai was also able to solve Basil's 90 second issue, more in the tips and tutorials forum.

Way to Go Dai ! Great Work !

Dai_trying · 2016-02-23 01:14

Thanks @Bobby, happy to help

Dai

Basil · 2016-02-23 08:43

Ah, peer recognition at last! (cc #19)

More seriously, I still have a lot of problems with my 1.4.7 installation and need to take a tactical choice:

1. Struggle on in semi-operational 1.4.7, trying to fix issues ad hoc, happy not to be wasting 90 seconds on each reboot;)
2. Reinstall 1.4.7 from scratch, biting the bullet of all the "automatically installed" apps which will have to be downloaded again, 2-3GB and probably a couple of days downtime (I work with brief windows of opportunity, very fragmented and generally unpredictable schedules)
3. Revert to 1.4.4 (same problems as option 2, but at least I did achieve a generally functional installation of 1.4.4 previously)
4. Put Q4OS on the shelf until release of stable Q4OS2.x.y, then pick up the consequences (maybe facilitated by co-operative upgrade process, Team?), falling back to my very comprehensive and stable LXLE installation in the mean while
5. Allocate some research time to achieving a bootable HDU install of 4MLinux on one of those spare partitions, along perhaps with a Crunchbang successor if the contestants are making enough progress yet

Any comments welcome. It crosses the mind (too easily, these days) that this is likely to get seriously off track, yet would benefit from Q4OS community input and could be of some interest and help to other Q4OS users. In which case, unless it breaks some fundamental rule of the support forum, perhaps a new page - maybe titled something like The Q4OS Trials of a Technogeezer - could be appropriate?

Dai_trying · 2016-02-23 09:15

@ Basil : One thing you might want to try (I have done it before, but not tried with q4os yet) is, if you have a spare partition reinstall q4os into new partition and then copy (as root) all files (except lock and partial directory) from /var/cache/apt/archives on one system to the other, run sudo apt-get update and then sudo apt-get upgrade and updated software should be used from archive. I'm not sure exactly how profiler installs the software, but that might use them too. Just a thought and would save a lot of downloading.

Dai

q4osteam · 2016-02-23 09:29

@Basil
The best way to locally cache downloaded packages is to use 'apt-cacher-ng' package:
$ sudo apt-get install apt-cacher-ng
and point the apt system to use cached files:
$ echo "Acquire::http { Proxy \"http://127.0.0.1:3142\"; };" | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02proxy

You may want to setup a network 'APT cache' server on your local network to cache packages for consecutive installations and multiple clients updates. Just install 'apt-cacher-ng' on the server and point clients, simply replace '127.0.0.1' with the server's IP address, to cache and download packages from the server. You don't need to install 'apt-cacher-ng' into the clients, it will work for all Debian like systems, Debian, Q4OS, Ubuntu, MInt, etc...

Edit:
'apt-cacher-ng' is actually viable on a local network, as a server-clients scheme.

Dai_trying · 2016-02-23 11:06

@q4osteam Great suggestion, I will be trying that on my next re-install, Thanks

Dai

Basil · 2016-02-23 17:32

Dai and Team, thanks for some thoughtprovoking suggestions which I am pondering. As it happens I have current Q4OS installed on 15GB of a 30GB primary partition, call it OldPart, and have a spare 18GB logical partition, call it NewPart. Dai, as I understand #25, you want me to re-install Q4OS from original 1.4.7 iso on DVD, onto NewPart, reformatting and cleaning it in process. After install, overcopy /var/cache/apt/archives (/v/c/a/a) from OldPart to NewPart, possibly while running in OldPart. Then do update followed by upgrade while booted in NewPart. This should achieve a clean Q4OS installation on NewPart, followed by the usual update/upgrade process on the new installation, except that apt-get will first establish from /v/c/a/a the current purported upgrade status of NewPort (i.e. the actual upgraded status of OldPort) before going out to the web repositories, to check which of the purportedly already upgraded apps/utilities need further upgrading. I understand how this will eliminate downloads of such apps/utilities that are residing in /v/c/a/a on NewPart, but I do not understand how this will bring about the installation of these apps/utilities on NewPart that were "legitimately" installed on OldPart previously.

As I see it, this implies that apt-get update/upgrade process first and preferentially uses /v/c/a/a as a kind of local repository of upgrade versions and applies them willy-nilly except when more recent versions are found on external repositories, e.g. on the internet. This means a re-installing of all already purportedly installed "upgrades" except those more recent ones that are brought in from outside. In effect then, every update/upgrade is done as if to a "green-field" installation of the bare OS. Please confirm that this is how it works.

Assuming that is so, I'm happy to spend an hour or two on the process described in #25, it could save a lot of downloading indeed. While I accept the bona fides of team, the proposal in #26 is a bit obscure to me at the moment and I'll chew over it, especially since man apt-cacher-ng is drawing a blank. Does that mean that I should install apt-cacher-ng to NewPart? How will it point to /v/c/a/a?

Thanks so far, will report good or bad.

Dai_trying · 2016-02-23 17:41

I think you have the main points of what I said, although I might be inclined to use the method offered by q4osteam as they have a lot more experience of their own os. And yes you will have to install apt-cacher before reading the man page, although the user manual is available online HERE which could have more information and be easier to navigate.

Dai

q4osteam · 2016-02-23 17:47

@Basil , @Dai
Sorry for the misleading #26, you will not be able to use 'apt-cacher-ng' on a single machine. It's viable on a local network, as a server-clients structure.

Dai_trying · 2016-02-23 17:59

ok, so now my option seems more fitting I had better clarify a little
1 install q4os fresh onto your spare partition
2 copy all files in (old partition)/var/cache/apt/archives to (newpartition)/var/cache/apt/archives
3 run sudo apt-get update
4 run sudo apt-get upgrade
5 run desktop profiler

And yes apt will usually use files in the archive so long as they match exactly what they are looking for. it will not update to a lesser version than is available from the repository. so it could be considered a kind of local repository.
And you will need to re-install all apps that you previously had installed, although if they were installed using apt/synaptic/aptitude they should have their deb files in the cache, so no (or minimal) downloading necessary.
I hope this makes it a little clearer for you.

Dai

q4osteam · 2016-02-23 18:12

@Dai
Yes, we can confirm your procedure #31 should be the most optimal way, thank you for that and exact description. Desktop profiler will fetch local '/var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb' files, as it uses APT commands too.

Dai_trying · 2016-02-23 18:21

@q4osteam Thanks, I am just installing to virtualbox to test, but don't forsee any problems.

Dai

Dai_trying · 2016-02-23 19:25

Virtualbox test complete and approximately 95mb needed to be downloaded, this I believe is mainly due to me removing google chrome when I did my main install. So hope you get the same good results Basil.

Dai

Q4OS Forum

#1 2016-02-04 22:30

Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#2 2016-02-05 01:47

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#3 2016-02-10 22:54

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#4 2016-02-12 20:24

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#5 2016-02-21 18:29

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#6 2016-02-21 23:08

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#7 2016-02-22 02:25

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#8 2016-02-22 03:19

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#9 2016-02-22 03:31

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#10 2016-02-22 10:01

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#11 2016-02-22 13:51

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#12 2016-02-22 20:15

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#13 2016-02-23 00:58

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#14 2016-02-23 01:14

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#15 2016-02-23 08:43

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#16 2016-02-23 09:15

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#17 2016-02-23 09:29

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#18 2016-02-23 11:06

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#19 2016-02-23 17:32

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#20 2016-02-23 17:41

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#21 2016-02-23 17:47

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#22 2016-02-23 17:59

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#23 2016-02-23 18:12

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#24 2016-02-23 18:21

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

#25 2016-02-23 19:25

Re: Downloading applications drirect from the Internet

Board footer