After installing the basic Debian operating system, optional packages were easy to download and install with Apt-get and Synaptic. Here are the Apt-get commands that worked for me:

apt-get update Retrieve updated list of packages.

apt-get upgrade -u   "You can use this command to upgrade packages as well as to upgrade to a new distribution, although for the latter the command apt-get dist-upgrade is preferred. It's useful to run this command with the -u option. This option causes APT to show the complete list of packages which will be upgraded. Without it, you'll be upgrading blindly. APT will download the latest versions of each package and will install them in the proper order. It's important to always run apt-get update before you try this...". Source: Debian.org.

apt-get install xserver-xorg  "...The X Window System is a display protocol which provides windowing on bitmap displays. It provides the standard toolkit and protocol with which to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on most Unix-like operating systems...". Source: X Window System.

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

apt-get install kde  The KDE project is a Free Software project and the K Desktop Environment, "seeks to fulfill the need for an easy to use desktop for UNIX workstations, similar to desktop environments found on Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operation systems." Source: What is KDE?.

(old) apt-get install xserver-xfree86 Use this command if not installed during setup. XServer combined with the Desktop package provides a familiar Windows style GUI.

apt-get -h <help>

apt-get install <pkg name>

apt-get install kdm Provides a GUI login, with reboot and shutdown options. If already installed and not working: apt-get --reinstall install kdm
Select KDM during the reinstallation; restart and after the Grub or Lilo boot menu for either Debian Linux or Windows, you should see the KDM screen with options to login.

There are currently more than 8700 packages available and the default package manager with KDE will list them all, but compared with Synaptic, the KDE package manager is slower. Try Synaptic:

apt-get install synaptic To start this program from the command prompt, type: synaptic

apt-get install ee Try Debian's Easy Editor because vi takes a lot of practice. To start Easy Editor, type: ee <filename> after editing, Ctl + c, then type exit to save or quit to leave without saving. Another easy text file editor is Advanced Editor which is included in the X package on the KDE desktop.

apt-get upgrade -u <verbose>

apt-get dist-upgrade

apt-get install wu-ftpd FTP program will prompt to set-up a user account or continue with default installation

info apt-get

apt-get install apache Worked well, Apache was installed and configured. When I typed "http://localhost" without the quotes, the browser displayed the Apache/Debian placeholder page with links to resources. Edit this file to
require a password for Internet users: /etc/apache/httpd.conf

apt-get --purge remove <pkg>

apt-get check Verify that there are no broken dependencies.

apt-get autoclean Erases old downloaded archive files.

apt-get remove <pkg> If you download and install a package from another source and without using Apt-get or Synaptic, removing the download can be tedious without this command: rm -r <directory name> Caution: the -r option allows you to remove whole directories that contain files.

apt-get --fix-broken Attempts to correct a system with broken dependencies. This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. The option is sometimes used when running APT for the first time. APT itself does not allow broken package dependencies to exist on a system.

How to deal with errors from Debian: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-erros.en.html

"If an installation breaks in the middle of the process and you find that it's no longer possible to install or remove packages, try running these two commands:

     # apt-get -f install
     # dpkg --configure -a

And then try again. It may be necessary to run the second of the above commands more than once. This is an important lesson for those adventurers who use `unstable'."

more apt-get: http://localtech.us/notes.htm#How-To

and from Stanford: http://ccrma-www.stanford.edu/planetccrma/man/man8/apt-get.8.html

APT for Red Hat

Apt RPMs for most versions of Red Hat can be found here: Index of /. Example how-to: Double-click pub, then freshrpms, redhat, 8.0 or your version number, and apt. Select the i386.rpm download for your version number, then Save and install from the command line:

Also, try this link for Red Hat Linux 9. Or, http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/redhat/

su and type your password

rpm -Uvh apt-*

When installation is complete, type:

apt-get update

Using apt-get with Red Hat, you do not have to unzip, extract or take any further steps to install optional packages. Apt-get will find and install all of the files required to complete installation and Synaptic makes it even easier:

apt-get install synaptic

Get the update and install Synaptic at the same time with this command:

apt-get update && apt-get install synaptic

To start synaptic from the command line, type: synaptic

Sources: Debian, Google, http://freshrpms.net/apt/ and other.

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