Pakfire was specially developed for IPFire and provides a safe and easy way to install Add-ons and updates. Similar to well known applications such as apt-get and yum from other Linux distributions, Pakfire is a package manager. It checks for dependencies, downloads these and installs them.
Some important features of Pakfire are:
-
Encryption: All packages and transferred data are encrypted and digitally signed by the server. Therefore it is ensured that no forged packages can be installed.
-
Mirrors: Mirror servers don't have to be trusted. This poses no security risk due to the encryption scheme.
-
Easy to Use: The installation of the packages is simple, with its own GUI.
Additional Note
If the firewall behavior operates with an blocked outgoing chain, you need to add rules for downloading packages via port 443 (HTTPS), so that IPFire itself is allowed to download packages and the icmp protocol is able to check if the IPFire server-is-alive.
Using the GUI
Preparation
When you select the web interface tab for Pakfire, the most important information will be shown, which is:
- What is the update status? (left)
- When was the last update? (left)
- What updates are available? (right)
- How old are the update lists? (left)
If needed, you can click on Refresh list to update the lists of available updates and Add-ons. A click on will install the missing updates.
Note - All updates and Add-ons will be checked thoroughly and several tests will be performed.
Installation of the Updates
In the window to the right you will always get informed about the newest updates. Because these updates often contain fixes for security-critical problems, they should get installed as fast as possible. By clicking on the button under the window, you can perform that operation by hand.
Installation of Add-ons
In the second section, the actual Add-ons can be found. Here are available and installed Add-ons listed. If you want to install one or more Add-ons, you need just to select the needed Add-on with a mouse click (press CTRL key for more than one).
Clicking on the plus sign installs the Add-on. However, before actual installation you will be asked to confirm installation or to abort.
Uninstall an Add-on
Uninstall is as easy as installation! In the list of installed Add-ons select the Add-on to be uninstalled, by clicking the minus sign.
You will then be prompted to confirm or abort the process.
The Repository option makes testing easier
You can now choose among the stable and two testing branches, to more easily install unreleased builds.
We hope that this helping you to help us testing IPFire better and therefore be able to give us more valuable feedback on releases.
Pakfire console commands
See the Pakfire console commands here --> Using the Pakfire Console
Pakfire troubleshooting
See Pakfire troubleshooting information here --> Pakfire troubleshooting
Further useful tools
If you are interested in the update history of your system, you can use this command
for logf in $(ls -tr /var/log/messages*) ; do zgrep --color -ai "CORE UPGR: Upgrading from release" $logf ; done