Ubuntu – How to open Ubuntu Software Center via Terminal

Short and sweet:

Run the following commands in terminal to install kdbg:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kdbg

Generalized Solution:

apt-get is the command line package management tool to install/update/remove softwares. To install any software you may run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update   # This updates/synchronizes the package index files with the update server (not always necessary to run this command, but preferred)
sudo apt-get install <package_name>   # This command actually installs the package

Most of the times <package_name> is same as the name of the software you want to install. However, if you can't seem to figure out the name of the package, you have a couple of options before you.

Suppose you want to install dconf Editor - it's package name differs from it's name.

1. GUI - Using Ubuntu Software Center:

Search for the software you want to install, then look at the Version field. It consists of two parts separated by a space, the first part before space is the package name and the second part gives the version information. For dconf Editor the package name is dconf-tools.

2. Command Line - Using apt-cache:

We run the command as apt-cache search <software_name>

$ apt-cache search dconf
dconf-gsettings-backend - simple configuration storage system - GSettings back-end
dconf-service - simple configuration storage system - D-Bus service
dconf-tools - simple configuration storage system - utilities
libc-bin - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
libdconf-dbg - simple configuration storage system - debugging symbols
libdconf-dbus-1-0 - simple configuration storage system - D-Bus library
libdconf-dbus-1-dbg - simple configuration storage system - D-Bus debug symbols
libdconf-dbus-1-dev - simple configuration storage system - D-Bus development files
libdconf-dev - simple configuration storage system - development files
libdconf-doc - simple configuration storage system - documentation
libdconf1 - simple configuration storage system - runtime library
asoundconf-gtk - Applet to select the default ALSA sound card
dconf - collect system information
libdconf-qt-dev - dconf Qt bindings (development files)
libdconf-qt0 - dconf Qt bindings (library)
libgrabcd-readconfig-perl - rip and encode audio CDs - common files
libmed-tools - Runtime tools to handle MED files
xnetcardconfig - A simple network card configuration wizard for X

This lists dconf-tools at third place. Not quite helpul, but still good enough in most of the cases.

I almost always tend to use apt-cache, if not satisfied, then use the Ubuntu Software Center.

Tip: Use simulation with apt-get:

If not quite sure, use the -s flag with apt-get to simulate the working of the command. Make sure to put the flag at the end. Thus, run the command as:

sudo apt-get install <package_name> -s