Debian and Ubuntu

Static M.e.

Newbie Qs.

Could you tell me please whats the differance between Debian and Ubuntu, Command wise. (if you get me)

Can I use debian guides to install stuff on ubuntu, command by command ?

Or do I change something in particular everytime, stuff that I should watch out for?

Sorry if the question is very vague, a general round about answer would suffice. I just hear alot on various forums referances to debian guides.

Thanks

MunsterCycling

Ubuntu is based on Debian so in general I would say there is not a lot of difference but then again what would I know, I use Fedora as my Linux Distro of choice.

MC

oscarBravo

General roundabout answer: Debian instructions will generally work on Ubuntu. There are no command differences, but there may be minor package differences.

Static M.e.

Thanks oscarBravo.

minor package differences

Would this be like package versions? one uses v4.5 another is still on v3.0
Is their a quick way I can tell what the latest version of a package is?

For instance I had trouble last night trying to the command below working

# apt-get install php4 php4-gd php4-cgi php4-mysql libapache2-mod-php4 php4-pear php4-ldap php4-snmp

So tried replacing php4 with php5 which seemed to work, except for the php4-pear piece.

Is this the kind of problem I should expect to see when using debian guides, that I need to go out and find the latest version of the packages in question

Syth

As others have stated, Ubuntu is basically Debian, but polished and using newer software. In terms of commands you can probably safely use Debian commands on an Ubuntu system.

As for your problem with packages, that's really up to the repositories that are used. There should be php4 repositories for Ubuntu... Normally php4 and php5 are seperated because they aren't totally compatible, so sometimes you'd need to install both versions. So normally an ubuntu package might be newer or at least the default package on ubuntu would be newer.

oscarBravo

Static M.e. wrote:

Is their a quick way I can tell what the latest version of a package is?

apt-cache policy:

[COLOR=Lime]paul@orac[/COLOR]:[COLOR=Blue]~[/COLOR]$ apt-cache policy mozilla-firefox
mozilla-firefox:
  Installed: 1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.5-0ubuntu6.06.1
  Candidate: 1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.5-0ubuntu6.06.1
  Version table:
 *** 1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.5-0ubuntu6.06.1 0
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com dapper-security/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.3-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper/main Packages

Static M.e.

Perfect thanks again Oscarbravo

Enjoy your weekend