Installation of software on Ubuntu

Objective:

Install a (somewhat standard) software on Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Assumptions:

I assume you have a running Linux distribution and assume you use Ubuntu (or any other Debian-derived distribution).

To install a new package, the best way is to check whether Ubuntu itself provides it. (This mini guide only covers the situation in which the package/software you want to install is provided by Ubuntu.)

My recommended procedure is this:

1. Install 'aptitude' if not done so, using the command:

   $> sudo apt-get install aptitude
   

   I prefer aptitude over apt-get because it is slightly more user friendly, and provides the search option.

2. Identify the name of the package you want to install. To install MayaVi, you would search the list of programs using:

   $> aptitude search mayavi
   

   and the you get the following output:

   p   mayavi2                         - scientific visualization package for 2-D a
   p   mayavi2:i386                    - scientific visualization package for 2-D a
   

   The first of the two packages is what we want, i.e. the relevant name is mayavi2.

3. To install this, we use:

   $> aptitude install mayavi2
   

   Then you are done, and should be able to start it with the command:

   $> mayavi2
   

Addition: if you see the following output after issuing the aptitude install command:

No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.

then this means that the software is installed already.