Workstation Update Management

PCQLinux has a large number of software packages that make

up the distribution. Also each of these packages have a ton of dependencies that

need to be resolved before it can be installed. And when it comes to updating a

package and its dependencies, it is a different matter altogether in terms of

complexity. For a network, the system administrator should setup a package and

dependency download server that acts as an update server.

However, if yours is the only such machine you need to be

able to manage the installed packages yourself. And this is where a graphical

package manager like Synaptic really helps. We use Synaptic as the update

manager for PCQLinux 2006.

Managing installed  packages



When you start up Synaptic, you will see a list of packages that are

installed and available on your system. You can manage this list by sorting,

searching and filtering them.

Once you have selected the package you are interested in, a

bried description of the package is shown. You can then decide whether to

upgrade, reinstall or delete this package. In the case of a delete, Synaptic

will warn you if there are any other packages which depend on this particular

one.

Installing packages



To install a package, simply select the .deb or .rpm file and it will work

out the dependencies for it. If it finds the dependencies in any of the

registered repositories, it will also install these in the correct order to.

Adding Repositories



You can add more repositories from where to pick up updated and new

application packages as well as do automatic dependency resolving. For this,

select Settings | Repositories | New. Enter the required URL of the repository

and other details and save it.

Once this is done, click the 'Reload' button to get the

online repository list as well as the locally installed package with version

listing.

Using the different search filters, you can upgrade

individual packages, the full system or install new packages from the

repositories.