Jump to Debian - Puppy can install Debian packages with some tweaking. As these packages are made for other linux distributions and not puppy. With more packages to wade through, Slackware's installation media can be burned to 1 DVD or multiple CDs, and will take longer to install than puppy, certainly. However, this is balanced by the hours not expended and frustration not experienced by a new user to manually identify, download, install, and configure a bunch of needed packages and dependencies.
This tutorial is for those who use Ubuntu, Debian or a derivative of Debian Linux and have downloaded a .deb package that they want to install. Typically you can use synaptic, apt-get or aptitude. However, if the package is not available via the repositories you may need to download and install them yourself.
How to manually install .deb packages:
Note: This process only installs the downloaded .deb package. If the package has dependencies, you may need to install them as well.
- Download your chosen .deb package via wget or another method
- From the terminal type sudo dpkg -i packagename.deb (replacing packagename with the name of the package)
Troubleshooting .deb dependencies:
If you receive an error like the following:
packagename depends on otherprogram (>= 1:0.0.0); however: Package otherprogram is not installed
You'll most likely need to install the otherprogram(s) before you can continue to install your .deb package by typing apt-get install otherprogram (replace otherprogram with the program name)
How to install deb packages published under Using and Configuring Linux