In addition to the officially supported package repositories available for Ubuntu, there exist additional community-maintained repositories which add thousands more potential packages for installation. Two of these additional repositories are most popular, and are the Universe and Multiverse repositories. These repositories are not officially supported by Ubuntu, which is why they are not enabled by default, but they generally provide packages which are safe for use with your Ubuntu computer.
![[Note]](../../images/admon/note.png)
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Packages in the Multiverse repository often have licensing issues that prevent them from being distributed with a free operating system, and they may be illegal in your locality. |
![[Warning]](../../images/admon/warning.png)
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Be advised that neither the Universe or Multiverse repositories contain officially supported packages. In particular, there may not be security updates for these packages. |
Many other package sources are available, sometimes even offering only one package, as in the case of package sources provided by the developer of a single application. You should always be very careful and cautious when using non-standard package sources, however. Research the source and packages carefully before performing any installation, as some package sources and their packages could render your system unstable or non-functional in some respects.
To enable the Universe and Multiverse repositories, edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file and uncomment the appropriate lines:
# We want Multiverse and Universe repositories, please deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper universe multiverse deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper universe multiverse
