One of the nice bits about running a version of Linux which supports a robust package management system is that the operating system itself can manage your updates.  This means that not only does your operating system seek out and alert you to updates for itself, but it can also alert you to newly available versions of your favorite software—and then, at your command, run that update.

It works smoothly concerning the software that comes installed on your system when you first create it.  That pretty much goes without saying.  It’s expected.  But I run Opera and I had to install Opera on Ubuntu 8.04 in order to do so. (I’ve used this same method up to and including 12.04.)

You’ll want to have a terminal open for a couple of lines of code.  You can open a terminal by navigating to Applications —> Accessories —> Terminal.  There are only two (one if you already have Opera installed) and you can just copy and paste them into the terminal window.

Ok, let’s ask Synaptic to manage any new updates that come down for Opera.  Open Synaptic (System —> Administration —> Synaptic Package Manager).  You will be asked for your password.

Navigate to Settings —> Repositories —> Third-Party Software and click the “Add” button.  Enter this line in the “APT Line:” text box:

deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free

Then click the “Add Source” button and the “Close” button twice.  (The second dialog is just letting you know that you have made a repository change.)

This tells Synaptic where to seek out updates for Opera.  (These are Opera updates, mind you.  They give those over to the cats at Debian.  Debian uses etch squeeze as the present stable version, and Ubuntu can use the Debian packages for Opera just fine.  For more about Debian and squeeze see Debian.)

You’ll need to add the public key.

(There is a line of code for adding the key on the below-linked-page.  This works in some versions of Ubuntu but not in others.  See my comments below if you would like to use the line of code.  Otherwise just follow the instructions in the next paragraphs for adding the key manually.)

Go here and copy the entire block of code near the bottom of the page (including both lines with several dashes which represent the BEGIN and END statements for the key).  Save this text into an empty file some place easy to find, like your desktop.  To create an empty file on your desktop, merely right-click on the desktop and choose Create Document —> Empty File.  Name it whatever makes it easy for you to find it and just paste those lines of text directly into the document.  Save the file.  (After you import the key you may delete this file.)

Let’s import that key.  (See the note at bottom of post.)

Go back to Synaptic and navigate to Settings —> Repositories —> Authentication and click the “Import Key File…” button.  Find the file you just saved with the key in it and click “OK” to import the key and then the “Close” button which follows.

Now, when you click the “Reload” button in the Synaptic Package Manger you will not get a key verification error.

Installing Opera is a one line command operation:

sudo apt-get install opera

(You will be asked for your password.)

From now on, when you run your updates by navigating to System —> Administration —> Update Manager it should seek out any new updates for Opera in addition to any updates otherwise ready for your system.

Thanks to my friends over at MyOpera who helped to make this happen.  Of course, thanks to all those Debian contributors for doing all the heavy lifting.

Note:

The key changes annually and so you will need to revisit the above page to get the new key each year.