Running dselect you will be lead through these simple steps:
- Access the archives using the apt access
method. You will be offered the chance to edit the file
/etc/apt/sources.list but I always answer N since it seems
to wipe out my comments. I prefer to hand edit the file and to
update my comments.
- Update my machine's picture of the world. This reads
the Packages files (which is the master list of packages available
from the Debian archive) found at those sites listed in
/etc/apt/sources.list and updates the information for
dselect on my machine.
- Select any packages you want to install. This will also
highlight any packages that dselect thinks you probably should install,
including dependencies and security updates.
- Install will then figure out what has to be done and tells
you what it will need to download. You can tell it to go ahead or if
you get cold feet you can pull out here and go back and change your
selections. If you go ahead the packages are pulled from the Net and
installed.
- Config is mostly a null operation for me. It seems to
just double check things.
- Remove is also mostly a null operation. It also seems to
just double check things.
- Quit when I'm all done.
Simple. The Select stage can be a little confusing when you get
conflicts so read the help screens carefully.
Once you've got things going with dselect you may find
the convenience of the command line based wajig useful.
