Installing .packages that aren’t .DEBs or .RPMs

While checking my updates from GnomeFiles.org I came across an app called GNU Solfege. Since my biggest issues while studying at the conservatory were centered on my problems getting a firm hold on solfege (ear training) I decided I should install it and work on training my ears again. Version 3.12 of GNU Solfege has come out but when I checked the Ubuntu repos I saw that they have version 3.10 so I looked for a new version. Unfortunately I saw they have installers for Windows and OSX, along with RPM packages for Mandrake, none of which I could use. They also have something called an autopackage installer, with an extension of .package. I’d heard something about Autopackage a while back so I looked around for what I needed to install GNU Solfege from the autopackage package.

It turns out I don’t need to install anything to be able to use it, and the Autopackage website has a very well written tutorial on installing .package files, compete with screenshots to let you see what you need to do. Basically you need to

• Download the .package file, then open Nautilus to where you saved the file.
• Right click on the file and select Properties
• Go to the Permissions tab and make sure the owner has execute privileges
• Close the Properties and double click the file to run it
• If you get a dialog asking what you want to do click on Run

That’s it! Every time after the first run you won’t even need to do all those steps, just double click on the file and run it. If you’d rather install it from the command line just change to the location you saved the file and run one simple command

bash [package_name]package

That’s it. The Autopackage site recommends uninstalling the current version first if you’re upgrading a program like this, and you can find it under Applications > System Tools > Manage 3rd party software (it may be at the bottom of your System Tools software). But you can also run package remove [program_name] from the command line to uninstall them. What I did see when I ran the Solfege installer today to double check the process before I started writing this post from the command line was

Removing currently installed version of 'GNU Solfege 3.12.0'.

Dang that was easy! When the installer finished I found a new entry on my Applications > Education menu.

If you’re worried about the possible security issues with .package files you don’t need to worry. Before it confirms that you want to install the package it asks for your admin (root) password so you don’t have the security issues that come with apps like Ultimatix. There are a number of apps available in .package format, but there is one thing you’ll need to keep in mind before you install any of them: You’re on your own for finding updates on packages you install from .package files, so using .package files might want to be a last resort for installing things, coming higher on the possible install method listing above only installing from source code.

Peng’s links for Monday, 10 November

• Calum Benson: End of an era… The developer site, usability.gnome.org has been moved to a wiki. Calum has all of the new links. I’m pointing you to his post because I see he’s already made one edit to his post and I want to make sure you don’t get outdated info from my post.
• Stormy Peters: Sneak preview of my talk next week: “GNOME as the computing platform for the future”. Stormy’s giving a talk a free software for business conference and she’s been kind enough to post a preview of it on her blog. If you want to see where GNOME’s heading her post is a great resource.
• Nick Ali: Ubuntu Podcast #11. Once again Nick has shown a resource that I can’t believe I hadn’t started using a while back. While it’s not an official podcast, Nick and Josh from the Ubuntu Georgia US LoCo give us some great info on bugs in Ubuntu and the slowdown that so many people are noticing in Ubuntu Intrepid. You can enjoy the podcast in several formats, including RSS, MP3 and Ogg Theora video, and they also have a link to subscribe to the podcast with Miro. I’ve installed Miro just to have it as a handy way to get the older podcasts and see what I’m missing.
• DesktopLinux.com: Ibex inspires GNOME switch. A long time KDE user was grabbing a disk image of Intrepid Ibex but accidentally downloaded the disk image of GNOME-based Ubuntu rather than the KDE-based Kubuntu. He tells the path he took to get testing it and why he ended up finding he rather liked GNOME better than KDE.
• Sense Hofstede: Idea #15442: Used hardware survey. I don’t usually post things I find on Ubuntu Brainstorm but Sense has such a great idea that I have to pass it along.
• Rubén Romero: Announcement: SpreadUbuntu 0.1 – codename “evan”. You may have heard of the SpreadFirefox site that was started to help promote Firefox 2, and the Ubuntu community has begun creating a site of mostly marketing materials to help you spread the word about Ubuntu Linux. It’s in the alpha stage, but there’s some great materials on it already.