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I would like to install some programs on a computer which uses a proxy to access to the Internet. I tried to configure the proxy access but for reason that I do not understand this does not work. I can surf the web but not use apt-get. I get some errors containing 401 unauthorised which I do not understand bu make me think that the proxy is meant to prevent the type of connection that apt-get uses.

I mainly want to install emacs. how can this be done simply using a web browser?

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apt uses HTTP, so it's strange that you had trouble. You might want to try again, by either running export http_proxy=local.proxy.domain:800 - obviously using the correct server and port - or by adding Acquire::http::proxy "http://local.proxy.domain:800/"; to /etc/apt/apt.conf – jackweirdy Oct 24 '12 at 14:32
I am not sure about the port. That might be the problem. – Alfred M. Oct 24 '12 at 14:56

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

You can always download the .deb packages and install them manually using 

dpkg -i package_name.deb

To download the package, go to this web page and select your Ubuntu version.

You will find a web site giving you alternate package versions (emacs23-lucid and emacs23-nox, the latter only to use with a terminal); also, you will find a number of dependencies -- packages that you must install before installing emacs, for example common emacs binaries. dpkg will complain about unsatisfied dependencies.

That said, I would rather search for a solution with your proxy setup, because you will have a recurring problem with updates (including security updates) and installing new software. Ask a new question with details on the error messages and your proxy configuration.

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nice answer :) You're right to say that about fixing the proxy though; often installing a .deb which isn't from the ubuntu repos will prevent that package from getting updates or will cause it to do strange things to dependencies... – jackweirdy Oct 24 '12 at 14:34
up vote 2 down vote

This might seem not proper way but it works take a terminal and run sudo apt-get install emacs

Since proxy is not working you will get error messages , see at the end of error messages you can see like this

Failed to fetch http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/emacsen-common/emacsen-common_2.0.3_all.deb Could not resolve 'in.archive.ubuntu.com' Failed to fetch http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/emacs23-non-dfsg/emacs23-common-non-dfsg_23.4+1-1_all.deb Could not resolve 'in.archive.ubuntu.com' ......

This are the files that are need too install emacs, if you are patient enough copy paste each link and download the files into a folder.

then copy the entire files to /var/cache/apt/archives then again run

sudo apt-get install emacs, it should work.

And please note this might not work if you havnt never run a successful sudo apt-get update

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