How to Use Eddy to Install Debian Packages on Elementary OS

Eddy is a simple Debian package management GUI tool in Elementary OS that allows installation of Debian packages by dragging and dropping  Debian files onto a GUI window. The tool can be installed straight from App Center platform or installed from source.

This tutorial shows the installation of eddy which is a simple Debian package manager used for installing '.deb' files in Elementary OS. Let's see how we can install from source on Elementary 0.4.1 Loki.

Installing from AppCenter is the preferred way of installing Eddy since it contains the stable, tested version of the application. Compiling from source provides you with the latest "commit" with the newest functionality that may not be released as a part of an update in AppCenter or in general.

Installing Eddy from AppCenter

Click on the  'Applications' tab located at the top left corner of your screen and locate the AppCenter icon. This can also be found at the bottom docker of your Elementary OS screen.

launch the application and type 'eddy' in the search bar at the top right corner and click on 'free' button to install the application.

Installing Eddy from source

Log in as superuser and update your Elementary OS  system first.

apt-get update

Installing git

We'll require git in our system to enable us to clone the eddy repository from GitHub.

apt-get install git

Install dependencies

The below packages will be required for successful installation of Eddy. Install them using the command below.

• valak
• gtk+-3.0
• granite
• packagekit-glib2
• unity

apt install valac libgranite-dev libpackagekit-glib2-dev libunity-dev

Clone eddy repository

After installation of dependencies, clone the eddy repository to your Elementary OS using the command below.

git clone https://github.com/donadigo/eddy.git

root@jamie-VirtualBox:/home/jamie# git clone https://github.com/donadigo/eddy.git
Cloning into 'eddy'...
remote: Counting objects: 771, done.
remote: Total 771 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 771
Receiving objects: 100% (771/771), 515.62 KiB | 231.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (481/481), done.
Checking connectivity... done.

Navigate to the eddy directory

After successfully cloning the repository, navigate to the eddy directory.

cd eddy

Make a new directory build and cd into it.

mkdir build && cd build

Before we begin compiling Eddy from source, let's install cmake utility tool.

apt-get install cmake

Building

cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr

Finally, issue the command 'make install'

make install

Sample Output

root@jamie-VirtualBox:/home/jamie/eddy/build# make install
[  6%] Generating Application.c;MainWindow.c;config.c;Constants.c;AppSettings.c;Package.c;TransactionResult.c;MimeTypeHelper.c;FolderLoader.c;DetailedView.c;PackageListView.c;PackageRow.c;MessageDialog.c
unity.vapi:97.4-97.13: warning: [Deprecated] is deprecated. Use [Version (deprecated = true, deprecated_since = "", replacement = "")]
/home/jamie/eddy/src/Application.vala:31.9-31.17: warning: Granite.Application.app_years has been deprecated since 0.4.2. Use 
/home/jamie/eddy/src/Application.vala:36.9-36.16: warning: Granite.Application.app_icon has been deprecated since 0.4.2. Use 
/home/jamie/eddy/src/Application.vala:37.9-37.16: warning: Granite.Application.main_url has been deprecated since 0.4.2. Use 
/home/jamie/eddy/src/Application.vala:38.9-38.15: warning: Granite.Application.bug_url has been deprecated since 0.4.2. Use 
/home/jamie/eddy/src/Application.vala:39.9-39.16: warning: Granite.Application.help_url has been deprecated since 0.4.2. Use 
/home/jamie/eddy/src/Application.vala:40.9-40.21: warning: Granite.Application.translate_url has been deprecated since 0.4.2. Use 
/home/jamie/eddy/src/Application.vala:41.9-41.21: warning: Granite.Application.about_authors has been deprecated since 0.4.2. Use 
/home/jamie/eddy/src/Application.vala:42.9-42.25: warning: Granite.Application.about_translators has been deprecated since 0.4.2. Use 
/home/jamie/eddy/src/Application.vala:44.9-44.26: warning: Granite.Application.about_license_type has been deprecated since 0.4.2. Use 
Compilation succeeded - 10 warning(s)
Scanning dependencies of target com.github.donadigo.eddy

Executing eddy

Let's now execute eddy by running the command below.

make install com.github.donadigo.eddy

Sample Output

[100%] Built target com.github.donadigo.eddy
[100%] Built target i18n
Install the project...
-- Install configuration: ""
-- Up-to-date: /usr/bin/com.github.donadigo.eddy
-- Up-to-date: /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/com.github.donadigo.eddy.gschema.xml
-- Compiling GSettings schemas

Let's see how we can install Skype from a Debian file.

1. Launch Eddy

2.  Drag and drop your .deb file or click to open the path of your .deb file

3. In the pop-up window that appears, click 'Install'. You'll be prompted for Administrator's authentication.

4. Your Debian package will start installing and eventually, the setup will wrap up.

If you are not familiar with installing packages on terminal or command line, the eddy tool can come quite in handy and simplify management of Debian packages. Give it a try and tell us your thoughts.