If you don’t like using the command line, and you want to manage your program installations without typing a command, then read on: this article is for you!

Ladies and Gentlemen: Synaptic!

Synaptic is a graphical user interface (GUI) for managing software packages on Debian-based distributions. If you are using Debian or Ubuntu you will easily find Synaptic in the System Tools menu or in the Administration menu. Synaptic uses the GTK graphic libraries (GNOME’s ones) . So, if you are using GNOME on your debian-based distro you will probably have Synaptic installed as well.

Synaptic is a graphical user interface for managing software packages on Debian-based distributions

Figure 1: Depending on your GNOME version, you will find Synaptic in the Administration menu or in the System Tools menu

To manage package installations you need administration privileges; so you need to either be root or to authenticate as such. Normally, you will see a window like the one in figure 2 where you can type in the root’s password.

Figure 2: You need adiministration privileges to run Synaptic

Exploring Synaptic

Once Synaptic has started, you will see an interface like the one shown in figure 3.

Figure 3: Once Synaptic starts, this is what you’ll see

You have a menu on top, then a panel with a few buttons, whose functionality will become clear as you read further into the article.

On the left, there are four buttons at the bottom that will determine what is shown in the menu above them. In figure 3, the “Status” button is pressed; so, you can select the packages you see in the list by status. If you select “All” (like in the figure) you’ll have a complete list of available and installed packages. “Installed” shows just the installed ones and so on. The right side of the window is divided into an upper and a lower portion; there is a packages list in the upper part and when you select a package in the list, you get a description of it in the lower part.

Packages can also be grouped by functionality (e.g. text editors, documentation, tools for managing images, etc.). Just press the “sections” button and you can select the packages you like among a number of different sections.

Figure 4: Packages can be selected by functionality using the “Sections” button

Let’s work!

Now that you have a basic idea of the tool you have in your hands, it’s time to go deeper and see how to use it. The first thing you probably want to do is install something. However, it’s better to use a little patience and do first things first.

As you may know, programs are made by human beings, and human beings aren’t perfect; therefore, a number of bugs are found every day in computer programs, and free software is no exception. The difference with free software is that very often patches are out a few hours or days after a security problem is spotted, and you’d better apply them.

Keeping the system safe

So, the thing you should always do as soon as you launch Synaptic for the first time in a day is update the package information from your repositories and see if there are any packages that need a security upgrade. On the command line that would mean issuing a couple of commands; in Synaptic it’s just a matter of a few clicks. First, you have to click the “Reload” button, which updates the information of the available packages. Then, pressing “Mark All Upgrades” will automatically select all the packages that need an upgrade. Finally, press “Apply” and confirm you really want to upgrade the selected packages. After a while you’ll see all the security patches applied and you can safely do all other package management operations.