I’m a huge fun of Ubuntu distro derivate. Is very well known that and the fact i hate GNOME 42 (but i miss the old one).

Anyway, the point of this article is: how much do you hate apt ?

Today i spent way to much more time that i care to admit on a problem (caused by apt) where it got stuck in a loop trying to install a library that was like the Schrödinger paradox.

Basically, while installing vagrant and packer, apt decided to install the library libtsk19.

The problem ? It was already in the system via sleuth-kit, but according to apt should have to be installed. And then start the loop on it. Long story short sudo dpkg --remove --force-depends sleuthkit-java solved the issue.

I’m honest, if wasn’t for a friend of mine i would never get to the point of using --force-depends (i know, i know…). Then he adviced me Nala.

Nala: a wrapper for the apt package manager

Please, don’t stop yourself at “wrapper”. Trust me, is much more !

Beside the amazing formatting to which it present the installation of packages, here’s some key feature:

  • Zsh/fish Completions
  • Parallel Downloads – While apt you go 1 packet at time, with Nala you go at 3 package at time
  • History – Let you easily go back in time and remove eventual stuff that messed up your system
  • Fetch – I don’t know how…but the mirror it will suggest are 10x better then the one you are currently using

Show Case

nala-fetch

Image 7 of 8

How to Install

Easy: sudo apt install nala

For more information: https://gitlab.com/volian/nala
Project Wiki: https://gitlab.com/volian/nala/-/wikis/Installation

If you have chance, support them !