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I have a deb package for installation.

Shall I install by dpkg -i my.deb, or by apt?

Will both handle the software dependency problem well?

If by apt, how can I install from the deb by apt?

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    I recommend not to directly use dpkg. In case of single deb, go with gdebi and in case of multiple debs, go for APT local repository. Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 10:53
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    why ......... @Pandya Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 10:57
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    @Tim because dpkg doesn't resolve dependencies. Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 11:05
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    @Tim gdebi identifies missing dependencies, can download & install (using apt),can install & configure (using dpkg). Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 11:12
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    superuser.com/questions/196864/… Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 7:44

9 Answers 9

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When you use apt to install a package, under the hood it uses dpkg. When you install a package using apt, it first creates a list of all the dependencies and downloads it from the repository.

Once the download is finished it calls dpkg to install all those files, satisfying all the dependencies.

So if you have a .deb file, you can install it by:

  1. Using:

    sudo dpkg -i /path/to/deb/file sudo apt-get install -f

  2. Using:

    sudo apt install ./name.deb

    Or

    sudo apt install /path/to/package/name.deb

    With old apt-get versions you must first move your deb file to /var/cache/apt/archives/ directory. For both, after executing this command, it will automatically download its dependencies.

  3. First installing gdebi and then opening your .deb file using it (Right-click -> Open with). It will install your .deb package with all its dependencies.

Note: APT maintains the package index which is a database (/var/cache/apt/*.bin) of available packages available in repo defined in /etc/apt/sources.list file and in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory. All these methods will fail to satisfy the software dependency if the dependencies required by the deb is not present in the package index.

Why use sudo apt-get install -f after sudo dpkg -i /path/to/deb/file (as mentioned in method 1)?

From man apt-get:

 -f, --fix-broken Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place.

When dpkg installs a package and a package dependency is not satisfied, it leaves the package in an "unconfigured" state and that package is considered broken.

The sudo apt-get install -f command tries to fix this broken package by installing the missing dependency.

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    @Tim, apt-get is designed to install packages from repository. It maintains packages list as well as their respective repository address. So just moving a .dev file, which is not present in the apt package list, in /var/cache/apt/archives directory will not work. Because whenever you try to install this package using apt-get, it searches for its repository, which is not present. For this you have to create local repository which I think is useless. Commented May 6, 2015 at 15:41
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    @g_p thank you! im a little confused in your answer above. you write: "(it will work if the .deb package is present in the apt package list)" - I do not understand what is meant here. How can one ensure that the .deb package is present in the apt package list? Commented Jan 28, 2016 at 22:16
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    @BKSpurgeon, I have added bit information in my answer. To find-out if a package is present in the index or not run apt-cache search <package name>. You can also use apt-cache policy <package name>, which will give some additional information as well. Commented Jan 29, 2016 at 15:10
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    Modern apt-get can be uset to install a package simply with apt-get install /path/to/package/name.deb. It would be neat if the author of this answer decided to integrate that. If not, I'll go add that answer sometime when I have enough rep here Commented May 31, 2017 at 19:10
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    You might need to use sudo dpkg --force-depends -i /path/to/package.deb Commented Mar 5, 2020 at 14:38
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Install your foo.deb file with dpkg -i foo.deb. If there are some errors with unresolved dependencies, run apt-get install -f afterwards.

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    I got Unable to locate package trying this way and got puzzled. I used as in Windows just name of package after switching to archive folder. Should be ./<file name> for Unix if in current folder or full path. That is if deb is not in folder present in PATH. Commented May 28, 2018 at 4:18
  • For scripting, use apt update && dpkg -i foo.deb || apt install -f -y to make sure that foo.deb is not removed by apt install -y. Commented Oct 23, 2019 at 13:38
  • sudo is needed for dpkg and apt or apt-get. Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 14:42
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You can install a local .deb package by:

sudo apt install ./foo.deb

Make sure to specify a local relative or absolute path (./ if in current dir), otherwise it will look for foo.deb in the remote repos and fail.

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82

Here's the best way to install a .deb file on Ubuntu on the command-line:

sudo gdebi skype.deb

If you don't have gdebi installed already, install it using sudo apt install gdebi-core.

Why gdebi?

gdebi will look for all the dependencies of the .deb file, and will install them before attempting to install the .deb file. I find this much preferable than sudo dpkg -i skype.deb && sudo apt install -f. The latter is much too eager to remove dependencies in certain situations. For instance, when I tried to install Skype, it attempted to remove 96 (!) packages, including packages like compiz and unity! gdebi gave a much clearer error message:

 $ sudo gdebi skype.deb Cannot install 'libqtgui:i386'

(Here is the solution to that particular issue, by the way.)

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  • worked great thx! btw, could be that the attempt to remove were about that transitional/temporary packages? or you think it would really break the system? Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 17:40
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    Dude I ran into an issue with your solution. I was trying to install Rstudio. It automatically found an old version of R for me. While using the solution by @g_p I was able to install Rstudio only. Commented Jan 19, 2019 at 0:34
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Check the dependencies with dpkg -I my.deb and apt-get install the dependencies before dpkg -i my.deb.

May be you can copy the my.deb in /var/cache/apt/archives and install it directly with apt-get but I never tried. Doesn't work, apt-get and dpkg are looking for packages listed in archives.

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  • Thanks. in your first sentenct, do you mean apt-get install my.deb by apt-get install? Is it to install from the deb file? Why do we need dpkg -i my.deb after that? Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 16:04
  • I always installed local .debs with dpkg -i, my understanding is that apt doesn't have an option to install them, apart the directory in /var/cache/... where are downloaded (I may be wrong) Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 16:08
  • It seems that apt-get install ./my.deb will do something, because it outputs a lot of things. What does it do? Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 16:11
  • It does too much :-) doesn't work, see @Igor_Dvoretskyi answer is just perfect, I forgot about -f Commented Oct 3, 2014 at 16:20
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The simplest answer would be to use dpkg by running dpkg -i packagename.deb. You could then uninstall it by running dpkg -r packagename.deb.
apt-get is a higher level installer based off of dpkg, and as such you could apt-get install packagename.deb.
It would be beneficial for add it to your apt-get archives directory (/var/cache/apt/archives) so you could reference it as a package with dependencies and not a standalone .deb archive.
Also, by adding it to your apt-get archives directory, you have the opportunity to use dependencies with apt-get install packagename. This would let you install it with any manually added dependencies instead of dpkg's standalone archive-based system.

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  • Note: if you want to use apt-get install with a local package file, you must install it in /var/cache/apt/archives, otherwise apt-get may decide to download it anyway. Commented Jan 15, 2020 at 11:58
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Modern apt-get can be used to install a package simply with apt-get install /path/to/package/name.deb.

(should be done as edit to the top answer but it was rejected - see https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/159114/edit)

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    This did not work with apt 1.0.9.8.4 for amd64 compiled on Dec 11 2016 09:48:19 Commented Sep 28, 2017 at 22:10
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The shortest way to install a local package with all required dependencies that worked for me:

sudo apt --fix-broken install ./name.deb

It is --fix-broken option that makes dependencies to be installed.

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-4

It is very simple if I want to install Chrome.

Install your Chrome file as:

dpkg -i googlechrome.deb.

Sometimes there is a chance of getting some dependency errors like the following:

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of google-chrome-stable: google-chrome-stable depends on libappindicator1; however: Package libappindicator1 is not installed.

So to resolve above issues, you need to add dependencies; give the following command:

apt-get install -f

After giving the above command, dependencies will be added to your machine and your Debian package (.deb) file will be installed.

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