Retired Techie
Getting older, not necessarily wiser!
Common Helper Additions for Base Install
Published on September 12, 2021 at 7:53 am by LEWIntroduction
While the base install of Debian provides a functional computer, there are some utility programs that can make the experience better. I am going to talk about installing a few of these here.
If following the base install you would have unchecked the last box in tasksel, marked “standard system utilities”. Note this only is available on new system installs. If tasksel is run after install is complete the option will not be present.
It is a small meta package that will install some of the utilities I am going to mention here. It also installs some other programs I don’t really use. There is noting wrong with installing it, as it does not take up much space. However since I am working a minimalist concept here, I choose to avoid some of the additional software. If anything is going to be a dependency it will be automatically installed alongside other programs. This is one of the advantages of a package management system.
Man Pages
Man pages are optional, but extremely useful command line tool. To have them available install these packages
apt install manpages man-db
Aptitude
The aptitude program is a command line package manager that has a user interface. If you dislike apt, consider installing aptitude.
apt install aptitude
BC
The bc program is a command line calculator where you just type your equation in (like 5 + 4) to get an answer.
apt install bc
ZIP and UNZIP
A couple of classics that you might need for installing some non Debian applications.
apt install zip unzip
GZIP and BZIP2
There are a couple of additional archive utilities used with Linux systems that are convenient to have.
apt install gzip bzip2
Wireless Tools
This is a set of tools for working with wireless connections form the command line. If you do not have wireless capabilities, you don’t need this. If you do, it might be a good idea to install them.
apt install wireless-tools
Conclusion
This list is by no means comprehensive. And I will be making additions as I think of them. This current list is some of the programs that are not picked up as dependencies by other installs that I have occasion to use.
Your list may differ depending on what you are workings accomplish.
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