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At the very beginning after I set up my Ubuntu 12.04, I installed Webmin (dpkg -s webmin reports the version to be 1.610) by first downloading the .deb file with wget and then running dpkg --install webmin_1.610_all.deb, according to the instructions on Webmin.

Later, I found that I prefer to use apt-get to manage as much packages as possible, so that I can manage them in a unified way. Is it possible (or does it make sense at all to ask in this way) to make apt-get to manage this Webmin package installed with dpkg? I understand there is a APT repository and the latest version is 1.67. If so, how to do that?

Thanks in advance.

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Not respiratory it's repository. –  Avinash Raj Mar 7 at 9:59
you want to upgrade a package via apt-get which was already installed by dpkg. –  Avinash Raj Mar 7 at 10:01
@AvinashRaj Oops i've fixed the typo... thanks. Yes that's what I mean, so you meant dpkg and apt-get are referring to the same thing? My original thought is that the .deb package have no information about path to the repository, therefore cannot upgrade itself. –  Kenneth L Mar 7 at 10:18

1 Answer 1

up vote 1 down vote accepted

In short: the answer to your question is just in the page you posted.


deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib 


cd /root
wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
apt-key add jcameron-key.asc 

You will now be able to install with the commands :

apt-get update
apt-get install webmin

Long version. If the package was installed with dpkg the it is installed. Once installed apt-get can handle it, i.e. you may run sudo apt-get remove webmin to uninstall it, or sudo apt-get install -f to fix the dependencies.

Just to be clear, apt-get USE dpkg. In a very short simplificated way, dpkg is the engine behind apt-get (and aptitude), it's the guy leading with the actual installation of packages directly and, of course, is potentially harmful to your system if you mess up, whilst apt-get really take care of you trying to avoid any disturbance that dpkg may generate. :)

Going to the point, the first part of my answer reply to you directly, the alternative to install a .deb with dpkg is to add a repository. Why, well in the repository you will catch every update of the program, while with dpkg your version is fixed. Also, in theory, the repo may solve all your dependencies automatically. In dpkg is allways convenient check for broken packages afeter the installation with sudo apt-get install -f.

Adding a repo consist on four steps: add the address of the software source, add the key to make ubuntu able to trust the source, update the database, and install. All of them are above. Adding a ppa saves you the steps 1 and 2! Cheers!

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Thanks a lot for the comprehensive and easy-to-understand answer! You made me understand the relation between dpkg and apt-get now. –  Kenneth L Mar 7 at 10:26

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