The "Software" application, also called oipkg, is what is used to install and remove software. It is actually a frontend to the command line program "ipkg" so most things you can do with oipkg you can also do with ipkg. Oipkg can install things either remotely from a web server (called a "feed") or it can install an ipkg package file that resides on the local filesystem. There is a bug in oipkg that prevents it from installing packages properly. There is, however, a workaround for it. Simply run oipkg from Embedded Konsole to avoid the bug.

To install software, first select "Opie" from the "Section" pulldown menu, the press the "+" icon next to "Feeds" in the main view. This will show all the available Opie packages (you can change which packages to view by selecting something else from the "Section" pulldown). Installed packages are marked with a blue circle, while packages that are not installed are marked with a red box. If you click on the icon for an uninstalled package, it will turn into an open box, with a blue circle coming out of it, indicating that you have marked this package to be installed. Mark as many packages as you wish this way, and then press the "Apply" icon (same red box and blue dot icon) to install all the marked packages. It will also remove any packages marked for removal (see below). Clicking this will open a window showing all the packages marked to be removed and installed, with some check boxes on the bottom, which represent arguments to be sent to ipkg, which you can usually ignore. After verifying that all the packages to be installed are correct, press "Ok" in the upper right corner (or press "x" to cancel and go back to the package selection window). The packages should then install, and you should see their icons appear in the Launcher, if they are Opie applications.

Removing software is the same as installing software, except you will press the blue circle icon of an installed package, and it will have a red "X" over it. Then press the apply icon, and "Ok". You can install and remove packages at the same time by marking the ones you want to install and the ones you want to remove, and then pressing apply.

When you install software normally, ipkg downloadins the packages automatically from ipkg servers (also called "Feeds") and installing them. The list of servers and where they are is stored in a file called ipkg.conf in /etc/. Oipkg is capable of maintaining this list, as well as adding or deleting feeds from it.

To select which feeds you want to be able to see and install packages from, go to Settings&arrow;Setups. There will be a box with a list of servers in it called "Used Servers". Servers that are highlighted will be used to install software from, while servers that are not highlighted will be ignored. You can click on a server to toggle its status. When a server is disabled, the information about that server such as its name and location is kept, so that you can resume using it without having to reenter this data. "Ok" will save the changes, and "x" will cancel them.

You can add a server to your list of available servers by going to Settings&arrow;Servers. Click on the button labeled "New" and enter the name and URL into the appropriate fields at the bottom of the window. The name is only for your convinience, so name it whatever makes sense to you. The URL is the URL of the feed, so the URL for the opie feed would be "http://131.152.105.154/feeds/ipaq/unstable". When you are done, click "Ok" to save the new server, or "x" to cancel adding it.

To change the URL or name of a server, go to Settings&arrow;Servers, and select the server that you want to edit. The current Name and URL should appear in the appropriate fields, and you can change them to the new values. Once you are done, click "Ok" to save, or "x" to cancel.

If you no longer need to use a server, this can be done by going to Settings&arrow;Servers. You can then select the server you wish to delete and press the "Remove" button. "Ok" will save the deletion, and "x" will cancel it.

Software is distributed in a format called "ipkg" which contains all the necessary files for the program, as well as information on where to put them. However, this information is only half complete, as it tells the package manager where in the "destination" to put the files, but the package manager must know where this "destination" is. The default destination is "/" (called "root") so if the package says to install a file in opt/QtPalmtop/ then the file will be installed in /opt/QtPalmtop/. However, if ask the package manger to use a destination at /mnt/hda/ (this is typically where a compact flash card would be) then the files will be installed in /mnt/hda/opt/QtPalmtop/. The problem with installing file in a destination other than root is that the software usually does not know where to fine the installed files, and Opie does not know where to find the information that tells it how to display the program in the Launcher. To get around this, the package manager creates links See for more information on symbolic links in Linux from where the files would be if they were installed in root to where they are actually installed. This means that no more space is taken up where the files would normally be installed, but any programs can still find the files where they think they should be.

To install a package in a destination other than root, go to Settings&arrow;Setups to open the settings dialog to the Setups tab. From here you can select the destination you would like to install the package to from the pulldown menu at the bottom. You will also want to check "Link to root destination" so that links are properly made. Once you have selected the destination you want to install the package to, click the dialog's "Ok" button, and all packages that you install will be installed to the destination you selected.

To add a destination, go to Settings&arrow;Destinations to bring up the settings dialog at the Destinations tab, and press the "New" button to add a new Destination to the list. The new destination should be highlighted automatically, and you can then change the name and the URL with the two text entry fields below it. The name is only for easy display of the destination, so name it whatever makes the most sense to you. The URL is the location that you want the destination to have. So, if you want all your software to be installed under /usr/directory then you would set the URL to that. You can then click "Ok" to save, or "x" to cancel the changes.

You can edit a destination by going to Settings&arrow;Destinations and selecting the destination that you would like to edit. Then you can edit the Name and URL fields in the same manner as when you added a destination. To save, click "Ok" or cancel by clicking "x".

Deleting a destination is very easy. Go to Settings&arrow;Destinations and select the Destination that you would like to delete in the dialog that appears. Press the "Remove" button to delete the destination, and press "Ok" to save the changes, or "x" to cancel them.