I wasn’t necessarily suggesting apt in the CLI; just the APT repository generally, which ZorinOS’ built-in package manager has. If sudo apt install hardinfo will find it, I have to imagine the GUI frontend will. Granted I don’t use Ubuntu because it and its derivatives are terrible, so I can’t say for sure, but this sure doesn’t seem like their fault.
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Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 weeks agoSo instead of just using apt – like every introductory tutorial to Ubuntu and its derivatives leads off with – you chose to do it (effectively) the Windows way that you’re familiar with where you hunt and peck around the Internet for an install file.
Because in 20+ years of off and on using linux, I’ve never once gotten apt to install anything. I have however fucked up my whole system by doing sudo apt update/sudo apt upgrade.
I avoid terminal like the plauge.
You didn’t have the dependencies, and it told you which ones to install. Why does it need to tell you why it needs them?
I didn’t say I want to know why it needs them. I’m upset it tells me that it tells me it needs them, and then says “they won’t be installed”, but won’t tell me WHY they won’t be installed. If the program needs those dependancies, just install them. Instead it juat says “we know you need the dependancies, but we’re not going to do that”.
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I didn’t try to use sudo apt install hardinfo, but the software store will find things from flatpack, snap, a few others.
It did not find hardinfo.
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“I didn’t use the main standard way of installing software, and am complaining because all the weird alternative ways I did try didn’t work.”
I understand that you claim apt has never worked for you, but I don’t believe you.
anothermember@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Sorry but that’s really not typical, you must have been doing something out of the ordinary or been very unlucky.
It’s the package manager that handles dependencies, not the program you’re trying to install. Random programs shouldn’t be able to just install things on your computer. Did you try installing the dependencies?
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I have zero clue how to do that. I don’t even know what file extention they would be, or where I would get them, or what step 1 would be to installing them.
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They would also be
.debfiles. If you wanted to install packageA.debthat depended onB.debandC.deb, withC.debitself depending onD.debandE.deb, you would work down the dependency tree to figure that out, obtaining the.debfile for each package as you went, then rundpkg install E.deb,dpkg install D.deb,dpkg install C.deb,dpkg install B.deb, and finallydpkg install A.debin that order.This is what
aptis designed to do for you, automatically.poweruser@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
It is actually very easy to break your install by doing this if you have made a habit of installing random .deb files from around the internet
APT can’t update things that are not in the repository and .deb files typically only work for a specific version of the OS (which is to say, they will probably work when you install them but break when you update).
You should in general never install a .deb file directly. Sometimes it might be necessary in order to install a program that the developer doesn’t support, but that lack of support should be a flashing warning light that the package will probably break something in the future.
There are ways to purge your system of orphaned .deb installs, and I suggest doing that before large upgrades