Aptitude - two questions (menu borders and installation)

Hello,

I just began using Debian the other day. I like it so far, but I have some questions:

1. I am using Debian Squeeze (v6.0.6) and connect via SSH using the puTTY client. When I launch aptitude from the shell, I see a menu that looks like this:

(prefix with http : //)
oi50.tinypic.com/xfyu5z.jpg

Note the weird "a" symbols that form the "Actions" menu border and sub-sections within that menu. When I connect to my friend's Debian Squeeze install with the same SSH client, same settings, etc. his aptitude menu borders are smooth white lines -- it reminds me very much of the old BBS systems that used the upper ASCII characters for drawing rectangles, etc.

Anyways, why does my system show the "a" symbols instead of lines? I want it to show lines.

Next question -- HOW do you actually install software with aptitude? Every time I have tried, nothing seems to happen. I always end up reverting to apt-get install .. which is fine, but I often don't know what package I need and so a tool like aptitude can be useful for searching the names.

Again, I am very new so forgive me if I asked a stupid question.

Thank you for your time.

Adam

Welcome to the forums Adam.

We use putty at work to connect to various Linux boxes and it does behave differently depending on which terminal emulation or fonts we use so it may be worth checking for something along those lines.

I usually stick with apt-get on Debian based systems purely out of force of habit so I don't really know my around aptitude but this is it's page in the Debian wiki

Hi.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adamforum2

... a tool like aptitude can be useful for searching the names ...

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See apt-cache with options search, show, and policy for searching and displaying capability.

Best wishes ... cheers, drl