05-22-2024, 11:51 AM
A PPA is a 'Personal Package Archive' which is a supplemental repository that can be added to the normal repositories included in Ubuntu or an Ubuntu-based distro (i.e., Linux Mint, Zorin, and in some cases Debian). PPAs are generally hosted on launchpad.net, a site supported by Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) where anyone can post updated packages or packages that are not included in the default Ubuntu repositories. As such, they are not vetted like normal packages and you need to trust the person(s) posting them. In this instance, the OpenCPN PPA is supported by the development team behind OpenCPN, so I deemed it trustworthy. The terminal commands I listed added the PPA repository to your list of repositories used by apt to install and update programs. As mentioned, PPAs are a way to access updated packages or packages that are not available in the normal repositories and are an alternative to downloading source code and compiling it yourself. I talked about PPAs a few months ago, but you may not have been at that meeting. See the following for more info on PPAs:
https://help.launchpad.net/Packaging/PPA
https://itsfoss.com/ppa-guide/
It turns out it may not have been necessary to go the PPA route to get OpenCPN working for you. I first looked for OpenCPN in the repositories from an older system I am still using (Linux Mint 19.3 based on Ubuntu 18.04 which is End of Life) and it was not in the repository for that version. I simply followed the instructions given by OpenCPN to install the application in Ubuntu by using the OpenCPN PPA. However, OpenCPN does appear to be included in the repositories of newer versions of Ubuntu (and hence Linux Mint), which is why I asked what version you were using. It should have been possible to simply check for updates and then follow the steps for adding the SAR plugin. In this instance, it did no harm to add the PPA because it gave you access to the most recent version of OpenCPN (5.8.4 vs. the 5.6 you said you were using). Additionally, it allowed you to add the desired plugin without issues, so all is well.
-Steve
https://help.launchpad.net/Packaging/PPA
https://itsfoss.com/ppa-guide/
It turns out it may not have been necessary to go the PPA route to get OpenCPN working for you. I first looked for OpenCPN in the repositories from an older system I am still using (Linux Mint 19.3 based on Ubuntu 18.04 which is End of Life) and it was not in the repository for that version. I simply followed the instructions given by OpenCPN to install the application in Ubuntu by using the OpenCPN PPA. However, OpenCPN does appear to be included in the repositories of newer versions of Ubuntu (and hence Linux Mint), which is why I asked what version you were using. It should have been possible to simply check for updates and then follow the steps for adding the SAR plugin. In this instance, it did no harm to add the PPA because it gave you access to the most recent version of OpenCPN (5.8.4 vs. the 5.6 you said you were using). Additionally, it allowed you to add the desired plugin without issues, so all is well.
-Steve