What is the Kubuntu equivalent of `gdebi` that provides a GUI for installing .deb files?

Question

On Gnome based systems you can install .deb files with gdebi instead of using the Ubuntu Software Center. What is the equivalent package on KDE using Kubuntu?

Solution 1

I found the tool I was looking for it's called qapt-deb-installer

Solution 2

As a complementary answer in relation to other answers and comments:

• Qapt Package Installer (qapt-deb-installer) is meant as similar to Gdebi, but, while it tells you when dependencies are missing, it doesn't list those missing dependencies.

On the other hand (like Gdebi) it tells you what supplementary dependencies are installed when executing a deb file.

Compared to gdebi, Discover is similar mostly in that it is able to install from deb files (unlike something like Synaptic or its KDE alternatives, Muon and Apper). But when it does, it doesn't tell you if and what dependencies are missing (it simply closes), and, even worse, it doesn't list the supplementary dependencies before installing them.

---

I would also suggest an alternative where, while the deb file is installed with apt in terminal (apt being the program that is run by Gdebi), the action is triggered with a GUI - namely Dolphin file manager - in two possible ways:

~ by associating the deb files with an "application" that would trigger our action, in fact just the desktop file ~/.local/share/applications/install-deb-terminal.desktop, created by us with the form

[Desktop Entry]
Name=APT in terminal
Comment=Install deb files in terminal with apt
Exec=konsole --hold -e sudo apt install %f
Icon=/usr/share/icons/breeze/mimetypes/22/application-x-deb.svg
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
Categories=System;

but that will be seen by the system as a new application that could be associated to the deb file-type

~ or, by just creating a new context menu in Dolphin for deb files, triggering the same action, with the file ~/.local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus/install-deb.desktop of the form

[Desktop Entry]

Actions=install
Icon=dialog-information
MimeType=application/vnd.debian.binary-package
ServiceTypes=KonqPopupMenu/Plugin
Type=Service
X-KDE-Priority=TopLevel


[Desktop Action install]
Exec=konsole --hold -e sudo apt install %f
Icon=/usr/share/icons/breeze/mimetypes/22/application-x-deb.svg
Name=Install with APT in terminal

I guess Dolphin qualifies as a GUI for our purpose. The rest is displayed in terminal - that is: missing dependencies, if the case,

or supplementary ones that need to be installed:

But we do not take any action in CLI ourselves, except entering the sudo password.

[Thanks to @DKBose I found this link where in a question I have presented this solution under a now dead account while I had the same username as now.]

Comments

[DK Bose]

Please see askubuntu.com/questions/1100044/… and unix.stackexchange.com/questions/448677/…. Apparently, qapt-deb-installer doesn't warn you if dependencies are not satisfied whereas installing via apt does. apt seems to be preferred over dpkg as well in this context.

[shmu]

Is there a Kubuntu-compatible installer for .deb packages that will tell you which dependencies were not satisfied? Apt on Kubuntu will tell you there are unsatisfied dependencies, but it doesn't tell you which ones they are.

[cipricus]

@DKBose - qapt-deb-installer does tell that dependencies are not satisfied when the case, but doesn't say which ones. But at least it tells which supplementary dependencies are to be installed, something which Discover does not.