Tasksel For Simple Installation

Tasksel is an installation system that is an integral part of the Debian installer (it is also included in Ubuntu). Tasksel groups software packages by tasks and offers an easy way to install all the packages needed for that task. It provides the same functionality as using conventional meta-packages.

Tasks List

Tasks are defined in .desc files found in /usr/share/tasksel. Debian derivatives can easily add tasks.

The default list available in Ubuntu can be viewed with this command-line:

gedit /usr/share/tasksel/ubuntu-tasks.desc

Installation

tasksel has been included as part of the base installation since Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy). Tasksel is present on all versions of Ubuntu's installer (but previously was not installed as part of the base system).

Usage

To run tasksel from the command line, type:

sudo tasksel

the tasksel menu will be shown:

Already-installed tasks will have an asterisk beside their name. Select a task by scrolling down and pressing space. This will put an asterisk beside the selected task and mark it for installation. Removing an asterisk marks the task for removal. Once "ok" is selected the task installations and/or removals will take place using apt-get.

Command line arguments

You can also directly specify which task to install.

For instance, to add the Apache-MySQL-PHP stack to an existing system:

sudo tasksel install lamp-server

For complete options, see the tasksel manpage:

man tasksel

Usage (alternative)

NOTE - Calling tasks from apt-get is not documented anywhere. If you find a page that documents this, please update this page with a link.

One can alternatively install tasks with apt-get. This is the syntax:

sudo apt-get install the_name_of_the_task_you_want^

And yes, you forgot the caret (^), and yes, it is magical.

Examples:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop^ sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop^ sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

Task descriptions

Here are the long descriptions of a few common tasks:

• dns-server

Selects the BIND DNS server and its documentation.

• edubuntu-server

This task provides the Edubuntu classroom server.

• lamp-server

Selects a ready-made Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP server.

• ubuntu-desktop

This task installs the Ubuntu desktop environment.

• ubuntu-live

This task provides the extra packages installed on the Ubuntu LiveCD. It is neither useful nor recommended to install this task in other environments.

source : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Tasksel