Apt and synaptic are still too difficult for new users - there are no user friendly way to add a new packages source :( There are 3 programs in Debian that provide this functionality: apt-setup (from base-config package), aptconf and gtk-sources. apt-setup has minimal dependancies (uses debconf's text mode or gnome frontends), but aptconf and gtk-sources are more user-friendly. aptconf has the ability to add custom entries. sources.list editor is targeted to advanced users and wizard would be very useful for newbies. Maybe button "Add new package source" should be added to main synaptic window ? Btw, search is still not user friendly. Most users expect to get a video player program when they type text "video player" in field "Find Package" in main synaptic window. I think there should be an option (turned off by default) "Exact package searching" in synaptic preferences. Then search meniu item should be added to Action meniu. Also only one search action with ability search in package name and package description (like "Filter Packages" dialog in stormpkg program) should be added. It's sad to say, but stormpkg is still more intuitive and easier to use than synaptic :( With stormpkg installing recommended or suggested packages is very easy, also is very easy to find or filter packages (for example there are no way to find package, that wastes more space on disk in synaptic). About half a year ago deity - very good apt frontend was removed from debian :(((. This fronted has the ability to sort and filter packages list by size, section, installed or available version, and other parameters. Try to use deity and you will see how comfortable and powerfull it is. You can download deity from http://files.akl.lt/veidrodis/misc_deb_packages/stable/ (gtk frontend is still buggy, but curses frontend is pretty stable). You can grab best ideas from deity and stormpkg :) Good luck, Mantas
Hi Mantas, Thanks for your bugreport. Please have a look to the latest synaptic version 0.32. It has a build-in source-list editor and some more ui-enhancements. It's part of debian/unstable (but it shouldn't be hard to build it yourself). The search for pkgname/description thing is fixed in 0.32 as well. Please have a look at this version and let me know in what areas it is still behind. More sort methods are a nice idea. I'll add this to my TODO list. And a easy way to install recommended/suggested packages is realy missing. I'll fix this in the future. Yes :) Thanks for your feedback. If you want to get a idea of what the next version of synaptic will look like, you can have a look at http://www.nongnu.org/synaptic There are some nice new features in the latest development version. We no longer use cvs but subversion. Our repository can be found at https://oops.kerneljanitors.org/repos/synaptic
Hi, Michael Vogt <mvogt@acm.org> (from debian bug #183717): My previous letter was about 0.32 version from unstable. I have 2 computers - workstation with debian woody/sarge and laptop with debian unstable. Btw - sources.list editor is identifical in 0.25 and 0.32 versions. As I said before - sources.list editor is targeted to advanced users and wizard would be very useful for newbies. I think button "Add new package source" and/or item in "Actions" menu should be added to main synaptic window. All problems, mentioned in my bugreport exist in 0.32 :( For example I can find sinek video player with apt-cache search video player but can't with synaptic :( I still think, that there are too much incomplete apt frontends... Both synaptic and gnome-apt are based on gtk and are written in C++. Maybe synaptic and gnome-apt developers can colaborate and improve one program ? I can write email to Filip Van Raemdonck (gnome-apt maintainer) about colaboration if you don't have free time.
Hi, I'm sorry. The bugreport was about 0.25, so I thought you weren't using the latest version (and I didn't quite remembered when we added the repository dialog :). The thing about this dialog is, that it must be kind of generic, as we have quite a few apt-rpm users. OTOH, I also see the need to have a more debian friendly dialog. I may add a wizard in the future that helps the debian people (your welcome to add such a wizard as well, it's not a hard task and I'll help you in any way :) Your right, this is a bug in the search code. This will be fixed in the next version. Thanks for spotting it. Well, Filip and I are in (loose) contact about our software. I'm not opposed to having only one program, but I think it will need a lot of planing. The UI is different and we would need a agree on a (probably) new gui, the features are different, the internal structure is pretty different. We have to choose what part to take from what software and it will have to work on both debian and apt-rpm based systems. This is a huge task. If you have some free time and you want to help synaptic, please test the latest development version available via subversion at: https://oops.kerneljanitors.org/repos/synaptic There are some exciting new features :) (and probably some new bugs to find ;) thanks for your feedback, Michael
I remember seeing such an option before, I was able to set fastest mirror using synaptic, but it is not present in Jessie.