APT (en)

- auf Deutsch

- in English

APT (short for Advanced Packaging Tool) is a package management system which finds it origin in the Debian GNU/Linux operating system, and is based on the dpkg package management.

APT was introduced in the Deambox world since OE 2.2. (For dreamboxes with OE 1.6 or OE 2.0, OPKG is used.)

The package management in the shell is a powerful tool for the Dreambox, and offers far more possibilities compared to the package management with the remote control. Of course, using the remote control is easy and most of the time adequate. But maybe this article can convince you to give it a try via Telnet or SSH.

Compared to the older Package Management Systems, IPG or OPKG, there is not only one command for the manipulation of packages. Several commands are possible, e.g.:

• apt-get - This command installs packages from the available sources. It considers the dependencies for the installed packages. Of course the can also be used to uninstall packages and many more manipulations.
• apt-cache - This command will not change the system. It's used to analyze (e.g. search) the package cache. The cache stores the meta-data for all available packages of the software feed
• dpkg - Is used for the manual installation / uninstall of packages. Keep in mind, dpkg is considering the dependencies during the installation / uninstall.

This article explains how to search / install / remove packages and some more interesting commands which offers APT. Additional interesting features of the commands can be obtained over the option --help.

apt-get --help
apt-cache --help
dpkg --help

Install packages from the internet

Before the installation the packages sources defined in /etc/apt/sources.list.d, need to be updated with the following command:

apt-get update

Be careful with integrating 3rd party sources. If the repository is not available, or not up to date, this can cause problems with updating the firmware, installing packages or even damage the operating system!

Installation

The installation of a package is done with the following command.

apt-get install $package_name

Replace $package_name with the correct name. E.g. if you want to install WebAdmin, the command is:

root@dm7080:~# apt-get install enigma2-plugin-extensions-webadmin
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  enigma2-plugin-extensions-webadmin
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 221 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://dreamboxupdate.com/opendreambox/2.2/unstable/r0/dm7080/deb/mips32el/ ./ enigma2-plugin-extensions-webadmin 4.2.0+git25+93609ff651-r0.0 [221 kB]
Fetched 221 kB in 1s (211 kB/s)                              
Selecting previously unselected package enigma2-plugin-extensions-webadmin.
(Reading database ... 10348 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../enigma2-plugin-extensions-webadmin_4.2.0+git25+93609ff651-r0.0_mipsel.deb ...
Unpacking enigma2-plugin-extensions-webadmin (4.2.0+git25+93609ff651-r0.0) ...

If additional packages are required, the installation needs to be confirmed with y. If n is pressed, the installation will be aborted. To perform the installation without confirmation, the option -y can be used, e.g.:

apt-get install -y $package_name

Now you wonder how to get the correct package name. The names can be found in the articles here in the wiki, or in the board. But you can also search with the package management system, as described below.

If the command results in an error, the package is not available on the feed (Unable to locate package...), or some required dependencies are missing.

Search package

To search a package, the command apt-cache with the option search can be used. The search term parses the package cache and checks the names and the descriptions.

apt-cache search $search_term

Filter the package search

If you know the structure of the package names for plugins, skins etc. you can use the search to get to the wanted result. The following examples of search terms might help to filter the corresponding package from the sources.

• gemini → shows the different GP3 Addons
• gp-skin → all available GP3 Skins
• gp-icons → lists the different GP3 Icon packages
• enigma2-plugin-systemplugins → lists Enigma2 system plugins
• enigma2-plugin-extensions → shows Enigma2 addons

Deinstallation

The deinstallation of a package, can be done with the following command.

apt-get remove $package_name

The $package_name must be the correct name. E.g. if you want to remove WebAdmin, the command is:

root@dm7080:~# apt-get remove enigma2-plugin-extensions-webadmin
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  enigma2-plugin-extensions-webadmin
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y

Confirm the deinstallation with y. If n is pressed, the deinstallation will be aborted. To perform the deinstallation without confirmation, use the following command:

root@dm7080:~# apt-get remove -y enigma2-plugin-extensions-webadmin

Local saved packages

Install

To install deb package, which are available on a computer, it needs to be copied onto the box in the /tmp directory. The installation is done with following commands:

cd /tmp
dpkg --install *.deb 
bzw.
dpkg -i *.deb

Deinstallation

To remove a package which was installed with dpkg, use following commands:

dpkg --remove package_name
bzw.
dpkg -r package_name

Update / Upgrade

Update

To update the package list, use following command:

apt-get update

Upgrade

To update the installed software, use following command:

apt-get upgrade

or

apt-get dist-upgrade

Update and Upgrade together

All in one go:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

or

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

Other useful commands

The missing dependencies can be checked with the following command:

apt-get check

install missing dependencies:

apt-get -f install

the cache (the downloaded install files) can be deletes with following command:

apt-get clean

search package

apt-cache search $package_name

or

apt-cache search . | grep $package_name