Synaptic Package Manager

With Synaptic Package Manager, you can access the Ubuntu software repositories to download and install free software. Synaptic is one of the best package managers you'll find. It has a nice, clean graphical interface, and it conveniently groups the available packages by category. There's also a search function, so that you can find what you're looking for even if you don't know the full name of the package. Installing a package is as easy as opening Synaptic, double-clicking on the program you want to install, clicking on the "Apply" button, and then waiting for Synaptic to finish the job. You can also use Synaptic to remove an unwanted program. Just double-click on the installed program, choose the option to remove the package, and then click on "Apply". If you need to install bug-fix or security updates, just open Synaptic, click on the "Reload" button, click on the "Mark all upgrades" button, and then click on the "Apply" button. Of course, you will have to be connected to the Internet for any of this to work. Begin by opening Synaptic from the System menu. You'll be asked to enter your root password before the Package Manager will open. It's always a good idea to click on the Reload button before you search for packages. That way, you'll alway have the latest information on new or updated packages. You can either browse through the different categories, or use the Search function to find what you need.

Here a search for "games"  came up with these results. You can either double-click on the desired package, or single-click and then choose "Mark for Installation" from the pop-up menu. Marking the second package caused this message to pop up. It's telling us that Synaptic will automatically install other packages that are required to make our choices work. Click on the Mark button to close the dialog box. When you've finished marking your choices, click on the Apply button. Click the Apply button on the pop-up dialog box to confirm your choices. You can also choose to look at the list of packages that will be installed before you click on the Apply button.  Also note that if users want to select packages to be installed, by marking them for installation, and also wants to remove some packages, by un-checking their corresponding check box,  this is no problem and can be done simultaneously. So go ahead and check and un-check packages and at the end review the confirmation message to make sure you're removing and installing the correct packages.l Synaptic Package Manager will now download and install your new software package. Operation complete!