Install .deb files in Ubuntu

Deb packages are a vital part of Ubuntu. The Ubuntu package repositories, from which you install applications, consist of thousands of Deb packages.

If you run apt install you basically download and unpack a Deb package. But besides the abstraction provided by the apt command you can install a downloaded .deb file yourself as well.

To install a .deb package file on Ubuntu you use the dpkg command. To install it requires the -i option and you need to specify the file path to the .deb file as an argument.

$ dpkg -i ~/Downloads/my_package.deb

Make sure to only install .deb packages from a trusted source. Anyone can package software.