Author: Jacobm001
Publish Status: published - 03/13/2016
Suggested Tags: raspberrypi, raspbian
One of the most common questions I see on the Raspberry Pi StackExchange regards how to install a specific piece of software. While often straightforward, the question can be much more complicated than one might be used to.
In this post, I'll try to explain the basics of why some software simply can't be installed on the Raspberry Pi. In the next post, I'll be starting a series on using Tmux. The first post in the series will be about installing the latest version from source, rather than using the package manager.
By far, the most common problem we see is when a user wants to install a program they use on their x86 desktop. This isn't usually possible, because all Raspberry Pi models (at the time of this writing) run some variation of an ARM processor. Since these are fundamentally different, a binary application can't be dropped from one machine to another.
Yes, and no. A processor (aka a CPU), is what does the computing within a computer. Each processor has a fundamental architecture type. In desktops, laptops, and servers the most common architecture used is x86. Your phone, laptop, and cable box almost always contain an ARM processor.
To simplify the different a little, think about the languages humans speak. A book can be written in English, French, and German. If a person only speaks English, giving them a book written in German is useless to them. Sure, the book has meaning, but they can't understand it.
Maybe, but it's probably not worth it on the Raspberry Pi. x86 processors are significantly more powerful than any ARM processor. They have much more advanced instruction sets which allows them to be much more efficient. Your desktop could emulate the RPi with ease, but it's not going to be so easy going the other way around.
For open source tools, the solution is often fairly simple. Many projects will host an ARM binary, and it may be available through your distribution's package manager. Generally speaking, the applications in the package manager are the safest bet. Their integrity has been verified (meaning it's a trusted source), and they have been tested with the operating system. They are not guaranteed to be bug free, but it's extremely unlikely that installing anything from the package manager will cause system unstability.
In Raspbian, the package manager is apt-get. To install vim, for example, the command sudo apt-get install vim will automatically install not only vim, but any dependencies that are also required*. If you're not sure what the package is called you can search through the repository using apt-cache search vim. Notice that you don't need administrative rights to run the search!
For the other open source projects, you can download the source and compile it yourself. You may want to do this if the version in the repository is older than you want, or it simply isn't in the repository. We'll go into more detail on this in the first post of our Tmux series.
While there's a popular idea that Windows is the only Operating System that has secuirty issues, it's not true. Malware exists on Linux, Mac OS, iOS, and Android too. That means it's important to pay attention to what you're installing. Things from the package repository are unlikely to be an issue, but be careful about random binaries you download off the internet. Make sure you trust the source that's providing the application before you download, let alone run it!
*Note: Always run sudo apt-get update before installing an application. Otherwise you might install an older version than you want.