How do I enable the “partner” repository?

Question

I keep seeing places refer to the "partner" repository as a place I can get software, how can I enable this repository? Please specify how to do this graphically and via command line.

Answer 1

GUI Way:

Click on the ubuntu button, then search for "Software Sources" (or "Software & Updates" on Ubuntu 16.04+) and go to the "Other Software" tab.

Command Line Way:

• Open the sources.list file: gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list (or with the command line editor of your choice, sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list would use nano on the command line without a GUI)

• Add the partner repositories by removing the # in front of the following lines (maverick is the version of your Ubuntu installation, it may differ, so use the codename of the release you are using instead of 'maverick'. If you're not sure run lsb_release -c to find out.)

  # deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner
  # deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner
  

• Save and Close.

• Resynchronize the package index files from their sources: sudo apt-get update

• Official documentation for reference

Answer 2

The simplest way to enable "partner" repository:

sudo sed -i.bak "/^# deb .*partner/ s/^# //" /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update

Answer 3

CLI method

This method uses

• lsb_release -sc to get the Ubuntu (codename) version.
• add-apt-repository to alter the appropriate config files.

It has the advantages of working in all versions of Ubuntu.

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) partner"

This is from a skype tutorial

Answer 4

To enable the partner repository from the command line, edit /etc/apt/sources.list:
sudoedit /etc/apt/sources.list and remove the # from the beginning of these two lines:

#deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner  
#deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner

So they are like this:

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner  
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner

Then update your apt cache: sudo apt-get update.

Answer 5

TERMINAL version, just copy and paste this commands to activate the partners repository (skype, etc):

DISTRO=`cat /etc/*-release | grep DISTRIB_CODENAME | sed 's/.*=//g'`
sudo sed -i 's/\(# \)\(deb .*ubuntu '${DISTRO}' partner\)/\2/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get -y update

@ERGuille: FTFY, with a cleaner version

Answer 6

This is how I did it within shell, I took the time for a little variation to increase stability, re-usability and idempotence (and not checking for the distro):

grep -qe '^# deb[- ].* partner$' /etc/apt/sources.list \
  && sudo sed -i"~$(date -%s)" 's/^# \(deb[- ].* parnter$\)/\1/' /etc/apt/sources.list

• grep check: change file only if it is to change.
• sed backup: keep timestamp'ed backups so you can go back in time.
• handle both source and non-source.
• use the name (last field) not the distro to identify the repositories.

Alternatives here:

• If you don't care about source and want to keep no backups: https://askubuntu.com/a/51244/55951
• If you prefer something more complicated looking of which is told it would extract the distro name and you don't care about source and you want to overwrite backups: https://askubuntu.com/a/46389/55951
• Even more complicated looking which was said about it was the less cleaner version of the previous one: https://askubuntu.com/a/37203/55951
• Interesting approach to add into a new file of it's own: https://askubuntu.com/a/471539/55951

In the end this might need another iteration or two. I hope next to the personal note on comments this was giving some useful summary.

Answer 7

TERMINAL just to make it easier, copy and paste this one command:

sed 's/\# deb http\:\/\/archive\.canonical\.com\/ubuntu natty partner/deb http\:\/\/archive\.canonical\.com\/ubuntu natty partner/' /etc/apt/sources.list | sed 's/\# deb-src http\:\/\/archive\.canonical\.com\/ubuntu natty partner/deb-src http\:\/\/archive\.canonical\.com\/ubuntu natty partner/' - > /tmp/newfile && sudo mv -f /tmp/newfile /etc/apt/sources.list