How To add Extra Repositories in Ubuntu Linux

A software repository is a storage location from which software packages may be retrieved and installed on a computer.

It's very easy to add extra repositories in Ubuntu Linux. In this article I'll show you how to add some useful repositories to your Ubuntu distribution.

First, we have to backup our sources.list by typing in terminal:

# sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

To add extra repositories proceed with the next steps.

1. VirtualBox repository

To enable VirtualBox Repository, run the following commands:

# sudo su
# echo deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian karmic non-free >> /etc/apt/sources.list
# wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
# sudo apt-get update

To install VirtuaBox type:

# sudo apt-get install virtualbox

2. Ubuntu Studio

Ubuntu Studio provides a lot of extra multimedia packages for multimedia enthusiasts.

To Enable Ubuntu Studio repository, run the following commands:

# sudo su
# echo deb http://archive.ubuntustudio.org/ubuntustudio karmic main >> /etc/apt/sources.list
# wget -q http://archive.ubuntustudio.org/ubuntustudio.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add –
# sudo apt-get update

3. PlayOnLinux

PlayOnLinux is an application to ease the installation of Windows applications using Wine.

To add the repository, run the following commands:

# sudo su
# wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_karmic.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list
# apt-get update

To install it, just run:

# sudo apt-get install playonlinux

4. Medibuntu

Medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment and Distractions In Ubuntu) is a repository that cannot be included into the Ubuntu distribution for legal reasons (copyright and license).

Run the following commands in terminal:

# sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring
# sudo apt-get update

It will also add Medibuntu's GPG key to your keyring, which is needed to authenticate the Medibuntu packages.

To add applications from the Medibuntu repository to appear in Ubuntu Software Center, run the following command:

# sudo apt-get install app-install-data-medibuntu