Other Languages: ComoSynaptic
Synaptic allows installation, upgrading and removing of programs. These instructions assume that you have permission to run sudo. (If you installed Ubuntu yourself, you do.)
Start Synaptic by selecting: Computer -> System Configuration -> Synaptic Package Manager (in Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)) or System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager (in Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) and Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger))
attachment:PicSynapticPackageManager.png
How to add or remove a repository with Synaptic
See AddingRepositoriesHowto for how to add and remove repositories
Adding and removing programs
Installing or removing programs is a very straight-forward task. You either find the program of choice in the right-upper part of the synaptic-window or you use the Search button to find it. Select it by marking the tick-box and press Apply. Synaptic might ask you whether it is OK to install additional packages to satisfy dependencies (they just belong together), say Yes. Or it will just install them straight away.
How to keep your system up-to-date
For Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) and 5.10 (Breezy Badger), the system will keep you informed of any updates. A red circle will appear in the upper right-hand corner by the volume control. Click on this to bring up the update manager's window.
Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)
To keep your system updated, launch Synaptic. Click on the Reload button, then the Mark all changes button, followed by the Apply button.
You should do this about once a week. If there are no updates, nothing will happen.
Browser works, Synaptic will not
If the router is set to auto discover DNS then Synaptic will fail. Resolve this by setting up a static ip address and manually set DNS ip in router.
Now Ubuntu (system-administration-networking) config static ip and enter your ISP dns ip and delete router DNS ip which will look something like 192.168.1.1
Other Resources
Check out dabaR's page: http://dabar.selfip.org/synaptic.html