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Monday April 23, 2007

NetBeans in Ubuntu

Last week we announced the availability of the Java Stack on Ubuntu and one of the coolest parts of this announcement is including NetBeans in Debian native packaging. NetBeans has been available in a standalone Linux installer for many years. What's new now is the integration with the Debian packaging system which can, among other things, automatically pull in dependent packages such as the the NetBeans Platform and the Sun JDK.

During our development of this packaging we discovered some legacy license terms that complicated redistribution. That caused us to create a temporary "installer" workaround that requires users to download the NetBeans IDE tarball prior to installing the Ubuntu packages. The NetBeans legal team went to work and updated the terms and we updated the packaging... but our fixes didn't make the feisty code freeze . You will be glad to know that we do have the fixes in hand and are proceeding to follow the Ubuntu update process that will, in a couple weeks, get the revised packaging into the feisty-updates repository (which is on by default).

The real NetBeans package

1. Start Synaptic by going to: System | Administration | Synaptic Package Manager
2. Select the menu: Settings | Repositories
3. Click the Ubuntu Software tab and enable multiverse (screenshot below)
4. Click the Third Party Software tab and click Add... (screenshot below)
5. enter the following APT Line: deb http://download.java.net/ubuntu/ feisty/
6. Click Add Source (and Close)
7. Click Reload (to update the Synaptic with the latest repository information)
8. Add NetBeans as one would add any other package: Search for "NetBeans"
9. Select "netbeans5.5"
10. Click Apply

The Details

1. What is Synaptic and how can I add software to Ubuntu?
   See Synaptic and the Synaptic HOWTO
2. Where can I learn more about Ubuntu Repositories?
   Ubuntu Repositories (see Managing Repositories in Ubuntu)
3. Hey, Synaptic doesn't know about this Tom Marble fellow, can I trust him?
   Only you can determine if you trust me
   You can see other's that have signed my GPG key here.
   If you decide you want to trust me then you can add my GPG key to APT so you don't get the warning in the future.
   Add the package gui-apt-key then run it:
   • Applications | System Tools | APT Key Manager
   • enter Key ID: 0x1EABA9CB
   • click Add
4. Where can I find out more about APT and security?
   See SecureApt
5. Hey, how can I make sure that the Java™ Plug-In works with Firefox?
   Simply add the package sun-java6-plugin
6. This is nice, but I found some other problem... what should I do?
   File a bug! That's how the team will know what works (specifically what doesn't) and we'll fix it. You can file netbeans5.5 packaging bugs on this page.