Installing additional software via the APT package manager
Background
By default, each TurnKey appliance is carefully built from the ground up with the minimum components needed to serve its role with maximum efficiency and security.
Users that need software that isn't installed by default can easily install it through APT, the Advanced Packaging Tool, which can be accessed through the web interface (Webmin) or through the command line interface (recommended).
Remember, a TurnKey Linux appliance is Ubuntu under the hood. TurnKey Linux just gives you a better starting point, so it's ok to customize an appliance to fit your needs. You can use Ubuntu documentation to help.
Before you start
Make you sure your appliance has Internet access. It needs to be able to access APT's online package repositories.
Installing packages via the command line
Log into the command line. You can do that via an SSH client, or from your browser using the AJAX web shell: https://appliance.ip:12320/
Updating the APT database
If this is your first installing software via APT you'll need to update it's database of available packages first.
apt-get update
Installing a package
apt-get install name-of-package
Searching for packages
Show a list of package names + short descriptions:
apt-cache search keyword1 keyword2 ...
Show full description of a package:
apt-cache show packagename
For example, let's say we want to do some network exploration:
apt-cache search map network | less
# let's find out more about this nmap tool
apt-cache show nmap
# let's install it
apt-get install nmap
Installing packages via the web management interface (Webmin)
Log into Webmin: https://appliance.ip:12321/
Go to System -> Software Packages
Updating the APT database
If this is your first installing software via APT you'll need to update it's database of available packages first. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click "Update Now".
Installing a package
You can ask APT to install a package by selecting the "Package from APT" radio button in the "Install a new package" section and entering the name of the package, then clicking "Install".
Searching for packages
If you don't know the exact name of the package you want, can search through for it by clicking the "Search APT" button. That will open a pop-up window in which you can search for keywords (e.g., editor) and get a list of packages that have that keyword in their name or description.
Commonly required extra packages
- build-essential: compiler build chain. You need this if you are going to be building software from source.
- vim: a full version of the Vim text editor.
By default all appliances come with vim-tiny (a subset of Vim, a modal text editor preferred by experts) and nano (a simple non-modal text editor).
Browse the Ubuntu package repository
Browse the full list of packages available in Ubuntu Hardy here:
