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Part
1: Installing New Software On An Ubuntu System
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Installing
Software on Ubuntu
Installing software on a Linux-based operating system is, in some ways,
easy and
in other ways a little more tricky than installing software on other
popular operating systems. This is partly due to the amount of various
options that exist when using a system that identifies itself with open
source philosophies. For example, as a user of such a system you will
probably also have access to the source code of many programs that you
wish to install. This is the norm when using Linux-based operating
systems and not very common when using proprietary operating systems.
Subsequently you are provided with more than one choice regarding the
installation of your new software.
There are four main options I'll discuss relating to installing new
software on Ubuntu.
1.)
Synaptic
Package
Manager
Synaptic is a package manager
which has the function of taking care of
installing Ubuntu/Linux software for you. Basically you search for the
software using Synaptic and choose to install it, Synaptic then takes
care of all the details of the installation process.
If you are connected to the Internet
and don't need to be too concerned about increased data usage, this
option can be
very useful. Even if you don't have a high data cap this option can
still work out to be the best, as software for Linux-based systems can
be surprisingly small in size.
It is certainly the easiest way of
installing new software on an Ubuntu system and subsequently my first
recommended option for this task.
Synaptic can be accessed from System -> Administration ->Synaptic
Package Manager
Do a search for the name of the software you would like to install,
right click on the
name of the software and choose "Mark for Installation".
Generally most
large packages will require that other smaller packages also be
installed to get the full functionality (or any at all) out of your new
software.
Software that is required to make other software work is referred to as
"dependencies" on Linux, This is a word you will probably hear quite
often when installing new software on any Linux system. When you choose
to install certain software
through Synaptic, it will tell you exactly what dependencies are
required to make your new software work. It will ask you if you would
like
to install the dependencies when installing your new software. It's
generally best for new users to follow Synaptic's suggestions and click
on the
button that says "Mark" in the resulting dialog box.
In some rare cases
the software you are trying to install might conflict with
software that you currently have installed.
In that case Synaptic will
suggest to you that you uninstall the conflicting software before
proceeding. This is yet another great feature of Synaptic's package
management system, as it will actually uninstall the conflicting
software for you including any conflicting dependencies. However, it's
worth noting that you should proceed with caution when choosing to
uninstall certain packages as this act might render software that you
require unusable.
Read through the list of conflicting packages Synaptic provides you
with before proceeding, and if you cannot uninstall the conflicting
software you might have to consider using an older or newer version of
either one of the conflicting packages (but not both) in order to
prevent the conflict.
When ever I want to install new software I'll always check if it is
available through Synaptic first, before attempting to install the
software through other means. There are, however, some cases when the
software that you are
trying to install is not available through Synaptic, this might be the
case when you are trying to install software that is very new and not
available in the Ubuntu software repositories yet (which Synaptic is
set up to access automatically), but don't worry
about having to
wait for the software to become available in the repositories before
you can install and use it because there are other options, if it is
absolutely necessary for you to have that particular software installed
on your current system.
Ubuntu will
often have in excess of 30000 packages available for installation
through Synaptic and this number grows significantly with each new
release of Ubuntu, so there is generally a good chance that the
software
you are trying to install can be handled for you by Synaptic. If there
is a more recent version of the software you are trying to install
than is currently available through synaptic, this is generally because
the newer version has not been fully tested on the current version of
Ubuntu you are using, you will probably still be able to install the
newer version but be aware that it might turn out to be buggy and as
such is generally a better suggestion to use the version that is
available through Synaptic.
1a.)
Ubuntu Software Center
Ubuntu Software Center is a relatively new option to installing
software in Ubuntu. It's main purpose is to simplify the software
installation process on Ubuntu by incorporating options from other
software installation packages and adding new functionality such as the
ability to install non-free software, and pay for it in one simple
interface.
Ubuntu Software Center can be accessed by clicking Applications ->
Ubuntu Software Center from the Gnome Panel.
As it is a relatively new feature in Ubuntu not all versions of Ubuntu
and it's derivatives come with Ubuntu Software Center installed. If you
have a version of Ubuntu that is greater than 9.10 Karmic Koala, you
should have the option to install Ubuntu Software Center using
Synaptic if it is not already installed. Do not attempt to replace
Synaptic with Ubuntu Software
Center, the two packages can work side by side on the same Ubuntu
installation quite effectively. Installing software using Ubuntu
Software Center is really easy and can make the process of installing
software in a Linux-based operating system fun and informative. You
will generally need an internet connection to use the Ubuntu Software
Center.
1b.)
APT (Advanced Packaging Tool)
Another option for installing new software that does
not require a GUI is using "Apt (Advanced Packaging Tool)" through
Terminal. To the new Linux user there is no obvious benefit to
using this method other than not having to use a GUI, unless you know
how to supply "apt" with arguments to customize an installation and
generally most new users to Ubuntu do not even know what "apt" is let
alone how to supply it with custom commands. However I have listed the
usage of "apt" as an alternate to Synaptic because once you become
familiar with using a few simple commands it can be more
beneficial (in terms of speed and ease of use) than using other
installation options , including those that have GUI's.
Like I said earlier it's all about choice in Linux, and this option
seems to be a very popular choice for many people using Ubuntu at
various different levels of skill.
You can open the Terminal through Applications -> Accessories ->
Terminal From the Gnome Panel.
Once you have Terminal open you can start to use apt. Apt comes
with every Ubuntu installation (in fact apt comes with every Debian
based distribution, this is particularly applicable to Ubuntu because
Ubuntu is based on Debian). Apt is used mainly to install packages and
bypass package managers that require a GUI such as Synaptic.
Despite the fact that apt has no GUI it is actually easier to use than
you might think. Apt is great because it handles all dependencies for
you, just like synaptic and does not require you to be specific with
naming conventions when referring to packages, for example if I wanted
to install the package "libc6" I do not need to know that the actual
name of the package as it is listed in Ubuntu's repositories is
"libc6_1.9.6-2.deb" apt is smart enough to realize what I'm trying to
install. This generic approach to naming can be very useful as often
different distributions refer to the same package with different names,
having your software take care of these discrepancies for you can be a
massive time saver. To install a package through apt you will need
to know the name portion of the package. For
example say the name of the package I wanted to install is called
"someSoft". To install this package all I simply type in terminal is,
sudo
apt-get install someSoft
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Note that the command is case sensitive and the first part of the
command "sudo" (pronounced "soo-doo" rhymes with "who") is
short for "Super User Do". A Super User on Linux-based operating
systems has system wide
access, and you will need to input your password when using a command
starting with "sudo". You should not compromise the integrity of your
system by giving other people your password on Linux, even if their
intentions might not be malicious having super user privileges on a
Linux-based operating system can be damaging on an unfamiliar system.
It is therefore
better to perform all sudo tasks yourself if you are the administrator
of your own system.
Finally you will need to be connected to the Internet or have offline
packages (listed in your software repositories) stored on DVD/CD before
entering this command.
Apt will then proceed to tell you what it needs to do on your system,
since it is a package manager it will try to obtain all necessary
libraries and dependencies, and resolve any potential software
conflicts. It will do this in the most logical way possible, and not
simply install "software A" first because it is chronologically before
"software B". For now the most relevant apt command is "sudo apt-get
install packagename", however it is worth mentioning that apt also has
the ability to upgrade packages (without having to reinstall them and
handle the upgrade of required dependencies) and also update the list
of packages available to you via the internet.
2.)
Extracting Pre-Compiled Software
The second option for installing packages if Synaptic or apt is
not available, is to not perform an installation but a simple archive
extraction of an already pre-compiled version of the software you are
trying to "install", in the sense that...
A compressed achieve containing the pre-compiled software has been
provided on the software developer's
website specifically for your version of Ubuntu. These achieves will
contain the software you are trying to install in a pre-compiled
format,
meaning that you do not have to compile the application yourself from
source code (which
we will get to a bit later). These archives will usually have an
extension like .tar.bz2 or .tbz2 (these archives are sometimes referred
to as tarball archives) or
sometimes they might even have the extension .zip which
is less common on Linux.
You will need the standard Archive Manager that comes with Ubuntu in
order to perform an extraction, obviously there is also a command line
tool for extracting archives but we'll be examining the GUI method
since this guide relates to what has been most effective for me as a
new Ubuntu user, your
experiences may differ and you are more than welcome to tell me about them.
A Side
Note on Desktop Environments and Archive Managers
The archive manager for Kubuntu is called "Ark". Kubuntu is basically
the
same as standard Ubuntu just with a different desktop environment using
"KDE", this is as opposed to the standard Ubuntu which uses the desktop
environment, "Gnome". Both of these desktop environments can be used on
the
same workstation and switching between them is easy as logging in.
Furthermore when switching between them you don't even have to restart
your computer.
A desktop environment provides a higher level of abstraction on top of
a basic operating system, this means it will include themes that unify
the design of various packages used in that operating system and even
provide a set of packages that contribute to defining that operating
system's behavior.
This should not be confused with Unity (in more current versions of
Ubuntu) which is a shell for a desktop environment, particularly the
Gnome desktop environment (but this is only applicable for Ubuntu
11.04). Versions of Ubuntu greater than 11.04 will more than likely not
include Gnome. Unity provides a higher level of abstraction (to that of
a standard desktop environment) to enrich the end users experience with
the operating system, meaning it provides consistency between different
applications for the end user mainly in terms of design. Nonetheless
whether you are using Ubuntu (standard
version), Kubuntu, Ubuntu Studio or other Ubuntu derivatives they all
come with their own archive
managers. |
To start using the new software you will first need to download (or
obtain by other means) the archive file containing the new software in
it's already compiled format.
Extract the contents of the archive to a logical location in your
home/username/ directory. I suggest making a directory in your "home"
folder under
your login name called "software" and extracting all software that does
not require an installation to that folder, this has worked most
effectively for me.
Once your new software has successfully been extracted, you'll probably
want to try it out. The methods of extracting software differ slightly
from one archive manager to another, nonetheless they are pretty
standard across any platform so I won't be discussing how to use their
GUI's.
There will generally be instruction files on how to
use the software (once it is extracted) in the form of an
"INSTALLATION.TXT" file or a
"README.TXT" file I would suggest reading these before proceeding,
particularly as it might not be so obvious as to which file is the
executable you need to double click in order to use the new software.
Once you've identified which file the executable is you need to make
sure that you have permission to execute the file. If you do not have
permission to execute the file you
can double-click the file as much as you like and not much is going to
happen. To confirm that you have permission to execute the
file, right click on it and choose "Properties" click the "Permissions"
tab. You're login name should be listed as the owner, just below that
is a selection box for Group then a cluster of checkboxes. The
checkbox relating to Owner that reads "Execute" should be checked. Once
that is confirmed click "Close" to dismiss the dialog box, and you
should be able start your new software by double-clicking the
executable.
The main setback with using this method to run new software is that it
does not create a system wide installation so you cannot run the
software from terminal without having to enter the location of the file
preceding it's executable name. Most of the time this is not really an
issue
(or rather hasn't proven to be an issue for me). So why is this not the
main method for running new software on Linux, largely because you are
not installing the new software and therefore not using a package
manager and therefore you need to handle the new software's
dependencies
yourself. What this means is that in the README/INSTALL file there
might be a whole bunch of dependencies listed. Those dependencies will
need to be installed (not simply extracted) on your system before you
can use your new software. If you are having problems getting your new
software to work after having followed these instructions then you
might very well have dependency issues. You will need to find out what
dependencies your new software requires and install those dependencies
if you wish to get your new software working. The first place to look
would be the website of the software developer of who's software you
are trying to install. This is usually the best place to start and they
usually list all dependencies on their websites. Please note that they
will simply indicate what dependencies are required and not actually
have the dependencies available for download from their websites. This
is largely due to the fact that they will not be the developers of the
dependencies themselves, simply of the software that requires those
dependencies. The dependencies will subsequently need to be obtained
from another location such as the dependencies' developers' websites or
an Ubuntu software repository accessible preferably through a package
manager such as Synaptic.
Another place to check is to do a search on http://ubuntuforums.org/ as you
will find someone has more than likely run into the same issue you are
having with the installation of your new software, and a solution might
already have been
documented. Using the forums is easy and I recommend setting up your
own account which is quick to do and free. As simple as your questions
might seem as a novice user, there is more than likely
someone else out there that has the same question and could benefit
from your posts.
Finally there's always Google, actually Linux support on Google is
really good!
Once you have identified what dependencies are required you should try
install them through Synaptic. Be aware that some dependencies might in
themselves have their own dependencies, in that case those dependencies
will need to be installed too.
3.)
Binary Package Installation
The third option for installing software on Ubuntu , is to install
from a .deb file. These files are sometimes available from the
software developers website of who's software you are currently trying
to install. A .deb file is a neatly packaged single file with the
extension .deb. Installing software from a file of this type differs
from archive files mentioned in option 2 as .deb files actually install
the new software not simply unpack archived files to a user defined
location. The benefits of installing with this option is that your new
software is now installed system wide, meaning that you will be able to
run the new software once installed by typing the system wide command
for running the new software without having to point to the location
where the new software is installed. This might seem a little trivial
at first, but having software properly installed on an Ubuntu system
means that it will also be easier to associate files with the newly
installed software by simply double clicking on the associated file you
will be able to launch the newly installed application and open the
file that you have just double-clicked in the new software.
In order to install from a .deb you will need an application such as
gdebi (which comes standard with both Ubuntu and Ubuntu-Studio). These
files (*.deb) come from the Linux developer distribution called Debian
which is
what Ubuntu is based on, so a lot of what works on Debian will also
work
with Ubuntu. .deb files are often referred to as a type of binary package.
It's worth noting that if you have the option to install a Debian
version binary or an
Ubuntu version binary you should choose the latter (although there will
not always be a difference between these two file versions).
Installing from a .deb is easy simply download (or obtain the file by
other means) and double click to open the file Ubuntu will
automatically open your Debian package installer with an interface
similar to this...
Ubuntu lists the package name and a Status field. The Status field in
this case is actually quite important as it will indicate if
dependencies are required that need to be installed before installing
your new software. gdebi unlike Synaptic is not a package manager it is
simply a Package Installer.
Therefore if there are dependencies that
are not satisfied on your system, gdebi will tell you what those
dependencies are and you will have to download (or obtain by other
means) and install the required dependencies before continuing. Be
aware that the Status line tends only to reveal one dependency at a
time, when several dependencies might be required, before
installing
the new software. Once the Status line reads "All dependencies are
satisfied" you can click the button that reads "Install Package" and
the package should install to the appropriate location and create the
correct system wide file associations and links.
3a.)
Converting a binary package to a Debian compatible version
Another type of commonly available binary package file exists for
Linux other than .deb, these files have the extension .rpm and are
oriented towards the Linux Red Hat distribution. Red Hat is not Debian
based, so if your only option is to install from a .rpm file you will
first need to convert the .rpm file to a .deb binary package and
install the new software from the newly created .deb file.
So how does
one go about creating a .deb file from a .rpm file? You will need
another package in order to do this. The most commonly used package for
this task is known as "alien". The latest versions of alien can be
found here. But I
recommend that you install alien through Synaptic. As alien is written
in Perl it has it's own set of dependencies which Synaptic will be able
to sort out for you. I have not come across a distribution of Ubuntu
that does not have alien listed in it's software repositories, so you
should have no problem installing alien through Synaptic. However if
you are lacking an Internet connection and/or repositories available
offline (in the form of DVD's or CD's) then you will have to do a
manual installation as outlined in one of the other installation
options (i.e. obtain the alien binary, source files, or archive and
it's dependencies and install the relevant files before proceeding).
Once you
have alien installed you are ready to convert the .rpm file to .deb.
I'll list a brief outline on how to do this as there are numerous
articles online that demonstrate this installation technique. The
easiest way to perform this
conversion is to
1)Open Terminal
2)Change to the directory that the .rpm file is in either with the cd
command (change directory) or open the location in Nautilus (the
standard Ubuntu file manager) right-click
on a blank area within the appropriate directory and choose "Open in
Terminal" if you have this option available. Terminal will now open
at the appropriate location.
3)Converting the file to a .deb does not have to be complicated, simply
type the command "alien" followed by the exact name of the file you
would
like to convert, including the files extension for example if I have a
file called "someSoft_1.6.rpm" that I'd like to convert to a .deb I'd
simply
make sure I'm at the correct location as outlined in the previous step
then type...
This will create a file called "someSoft_1.6.deb" in the same
directory.
You are now ready to install the .deb binary using the previously
outlined steps in option 3 Binary Package Installation.
4.)
Installing from source
The final suggestion for installing new software on Ubuntu is to
install from source. This option is actually
not as daunting as it may initially seem for those that are unfamiliar
with Linux.
Firstly what does it mean to install from source?
Installing new
software from source is an option that one does not generally have on
proprietary operating systems, this is generally because software that
runs on proprietary operating systems tends to
be (not unlike the operating system it is written for) that being
"closed" source. This means
that the source code used to develop the software is not publicly
available or not available at all. This is particularly relevant to
software developers, nonetheless if you have exhausted all other
options and the only option left for you to install your new software
is to install it from source then this option might prove to be useful
to you. Firstly you do not have to be a software developer or even know
how to write code in order to install software from source. What you
will however need is the source code to start off with once again this
is usually available from the software developers website or sourceforge.net.
You will also need the dependencies required to
install the new software. The best way to find out what dependencies
are required is to look for a listing of required dependencies at the
software developers website of
who's software you are trying to install or do a search on ubuntuforums.org for help with
software installation issues.
Once you have all required dependencies and source
code, install the dependencies first (preferably
through Synaptic). If you are not sure about what
dependencies are needed this might not be particularly problematic, as
when
you compile the new software you will get an error message telling you
that a dependency has not been satisfied just before the configuration
stage of the compilation process
exits. At this point you will at least know the name of the dependency
and you can subsequently search for it.
Software can be written in many different languages, but C/C++ is a
popular choice for a lot of different varieties of software
packages, particularly those found on Linux and this is largly due to
the portibility that the resultant C/C++ source code offers.
Subsequently before compiling your new software you will need
a software compiler that supports C/C++. I recommend installing
"make" (a dependancy solver),
"gcc" (which is the GNU C compiler) and
"g++" (the GNU C++ compiler), along
with all their dependencies.
The "build-essential" package offers a general purpose solution for
installing software from source. As installing this package should also
install the packages listed above amongst other required software it is
recommended that you first install "build-essential" in order to keep
things simple. Nonetheless, the four noted packages will be a minimal
set of requirements (in most cases) for installing software from
source. For some software the developers might recommend "scons" as
a replacement for "make". This software will be available from the
Ubuntu repositories through Synaptic. Bear in mind that once you have
all of
this software installed and working you will not need to reinstall it
(unless something were to corrupt your installation), so this part of
the configuration process is
something you need, only do once. Compiling software
becomes easier to accomplish with time as a lot of dependencies that
are required by one application might in fact also be required by other
software you are trying to install at a later stage. In this case you
will
not need to reinstall those dependencies.
Once you have downloaded the source code
there will generally be a file called "README.TXT" or "INSTALL.TXT" in
the main
directory. If there is such a file, I recommend reading it as it will
usually contain critical information relating to the successful
installation of your new software and also a good possibility that it
will list required dependencies. One thing it might not mention is
that when compiling certain software along with the required
dependencies,
you might also need their -dev (developers) packages. The -dev packages
usually follow the
naming
convention "dependencyName-dev". So for example if I needed the
dependency named "libxpm", and I'm compiling the software that
requires this dependency from source, there's a possibility that I
might
also need the package named "libxpm-dev". If you are uncertain whether
you will be requiring the -dev packages or not, I recommend waiting
until it has been identified during the configure step of the make process (explained below) that
this package will be required to proceed. Compilation will not be able
to continue unless all required dependancies (including their
dependancies and developer packages) are met so consider this
suggestion to be a troubleshooting option in the event of certain
compilation errors.
Sometimes dependencies are
listed for a particular platform with a name that is specific to that
platform, in that case be as generic as possible when searching for
dependencies (where ever that may be eg Synaptic, the web etc), for
example in a README file the dependency file "libjack100.0" might be
listed however searching for this file in Synaptic might not
turn up any results, and searching for it on the internet might turn up
results only for other platforms (such as an rpm based distro). In this
case the name you are searching for might be too specific (perhaps
specific
to another platform that is not Debian based). It is
recommended that you try another logical variation of the name. In this
case searching for the file "libjack" (with the numbers
removed) in Synaptic will turn up
several results of which the file "libjack0.100.0-0" is one of the
results. As you can see the listed name in the README file
"libjack100.0" is very similar to the Ubuntu listed name
"libjack0.100.0-0" and it is therefore easy to ascertain that these
files are equivalent to each other. Install the dependency as it is
listed under it's Ubuntu name.
Synaptic Listed
Name
README.TXT Listed name
Once you have downloaded the source code, installed all the
dependencies and also installed a compilation tool for the specific
language the new software you are trying to install is written in, you
are ready to begin compiling the new software. If you have been able to
satisfy the preceding steps then compilation should actually run along
pretty smoothly and as it turns out is actually the easiest part of
installing new software from source. The most common method of
compiling new software follows...
If you obtained the source code in archive format, you will need to
unpack the source code to a working directory. These archives are
generally tarball files and will have an extension such as .tgz,
.tar.gz, .bz or commonly in more recent times .tar.bz2.
For the sake of this
example we will create a directory called "source" in the user's home
directory (myName) and unpack the
archive to this location.
Open up
Terminal.
Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
You can unpack the downloaded archieve using an archive manager listed
above such as "Ark" or you could use a command similar to the following
command (by changing the path and filename to suite your needs). This
command assumes that you have downloaded the archive file to a
directory called "Download" in the user's home directory.
tar jxvf ~/Download/packageName.tar.bz2 -C ~/source
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When the archive has been unpacked you will find many new files in the
source directory that will be needed during the compilation process.
In Terminal "cd" (change directory) to the location you unpacked your
source code to. The original archive file you obtained earlier is no
longer needed.
Please note that all commands are case-sensative.
Once you are in the appropriate directory you should look for the
README.TXT or INSTALL.TXT file and read it before coninuing (as
mentioned earlier). You are
ready to proceed with the next command, in Terminal type, (exactly as
it appears in the box below):
Note that when copying text from
Terminal the shortcut is "ctrl-shift-c" and when pasting text into
Terminal the shortcut is "ctrl-shift-v", the text in the box above
can simply be pasted into Terminal using these keyboad shortcuts.
Once you hit enter, Terminal executes this script and you should see a
long list of output text appear, scroll upwards and get replaced with
more
output text. This is your new software communicating with your computer
and
inquiring about it's current configuration.
If there are any problems, such as dependencies missing Terminal will
print **Error** to the screen and exit back to the command prompt. Be
aware
there are no visual clues (other than Terminal printing "Error" and
indicating the nature of the problem) and there are no audible clues
indicating an error either. In fact if it is the first time you have
compiled
an application an error can go by relatively unnoticed, that is until
you try continue with the compilation and cannot get any further.
Having said that it is important to note the last few lines of Output
text printed to the
Terminal before it stopped executing the "./configure" script if you
do not see the word "**Error**" printed to the screen then you have
more than likely successfully completed the configuration stage of
compilation. However, if you do get an error it is worth noting what
the error states and if it mentions anything about dependencies (which
seems to be more often the case than not), or missing files, libraries
or the like you will need to install
those dependencies and software before continuing.
You can also seek help at ubuntuforums.org if you are unable of how to
proceed.
Once
you have successfully completed the configure process you are ready to
proceed to the next stage of the make
process, in the same Terminal window type,
make takes some time to create the files necessary to install your new
software. It will also print out information about what it is doing in
the Terminal. Once you have successfully run "make" you are ready to
move onto the next command. In the same Terminal window type,
If you run into any problems during the compilation process, after
checking the error messages that have been printed to terminal and
before reattempting to compile the new software you must run:
If all went according to plan your new software will now be installed
on your system. Generally when new software is installed you will find
the executable file in /usr/bin/packageName. You will not need to
create a "shortcut" to this file as you should be able to simply run
the new software by typing it's name in any Terminal window.
You can also create a shortcut to running your new software from your
Desktop with an icon. Right click on an empty area on your Desktop and
choose Create
Launcher...
In this dialog box you can choose an icon for your new launcher, give
it a name and description (comment field) and most importantly don't
forget to type the command to launch your newly installed software
using case sensitivity.
If for some reason or the other you wish to uninstall the software.
Return to the source directory and type:
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