Help installing Debian Packages

[Garibaldi]

I am fairly new at linux and want to install some new apps. I downloaded avidemux from:
ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/dists/stable/main/binary-i386
I then opened the package in kpackage, and clicked install it gave me this error:

<noppix/avidemux_0.9-woody0.0_i386.deb' ;echo RESULT=$?
dpkg: dpkg ???????????????????: ????????????????
RESULT=2

What can I do to install packages in linux? I am using Knoppix distro. Thanks

[DivXExpert]

Eh, its a program for the Debian distribution of Linux, not the Knoppix.
Any program you install has to be compatible with your distribution of Linux.

[Garibaldi]

Eh, its a program for the Debian distribution of Linux, not the Knoppix.
Any program you install has to be compatible with your distribution of Linux.

I thought Knoppix was based on Debian. If not Debian, what is it based on?

[DivXExpert]

not sure. but i don't think so. i'm pretty sure it is its own thing.
i might be wrong. but it doesn't say anything about that on the knoppix website.

[sterno]

Knoppix is based on Debian, but because of its heavy modifications you'll have to jump through some hoops to install packages. It's all documented so do a little reading before you try again. Don't mess around with kpackage, it's junk. Just "dpkg -i file.deb" as root. If it can't be installed you'll probably get an actual error message telling you why.

[Garibaldi]

Knoppix is based on Debian, but because of its heavy modifications you'll have to jump through some hoops to install packages. It's all documented so do a little reading before you try again. Don't mess around with kpackage, it's junk. Just "dpkg -i file.deb" as root. If it can't be installed you'll probably get an actual error message telling you why.

let me give that a try and get back to you. Thanks.

[Garibaldi]

Just "dpkg -i file.deb" as root.

I did this in console:
su
dpkg -i mplayer.deb
It gave me an error, which for some reason was in Chinese or Japanese, even though my regional settings are English. Because if this I can't tell you what the error message is. as far as the "file.deb", don't I have to specify the folder by cd ing or something? Since this didn't work, do you have any other suggestions? I already tried apt-get install mplayer, which gave me another long error in Chinese.

[sterno]

Replace "file.deb" with the path to your deb file. If it's in the current working directory then you just need a filename, if it's somewhere else you need to give it a path. This matter of pathnames is pretty basic UNIX stuff, you should probably spend some quality time with a beginners' guide.

As for your other problem, learn Chinese? I'm not sure what to tell you on that, I never used Knoppix for anything but a temporary system when I didn't have a hard drive in one machine.