Opera Debian Repositories

Being a web developer, I have an obligation to ensure that the sites I build work on the wides range of popular web browsers as possible. Because of this, I often find myself installing the wonderful Opera web browser on my Linux systems. Now, I could just download it directly from http://www.opera.com/ each time there's an upgrade, but it is much easier to handle when running a Debian-based distribution thanks to the apt-get infrastructure. This article will explain how to set your Debian system up to be capable of automatically updating Opera any time there is a new release.

1. Install the keyring. A keyring is simply a way to verify the identity of the repository. It kinda makes sure that you are installing from the server you want to be installing from, instead of a different server that has unauthorized packages. To install the keyring, run the following command as root (or with root privileges using sudo):

   wget -O - http://deb.opera.com/archive.key | apt-key add -

   Note: Copying and pasting the above command does not seem to play well. The dash immediately before the http://... is translated improperly on this webpage. It should just be a regular dash.

2. Install the repositories. This part usually depends upon your particular flavor of Debian. I am running Debian Sid, so I install the Opera repository using the following line:

   deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ sid non-free

   or if I am feeling brave, I can install the "unstable" testing version of opera with

   deb http://deb.opera.com/opera-beta/ sid non-free

   If you are running Debian “etch”, you would change sid to etch and likewise for other flavors of Debian. This line typically goes in the /etc/apt/sources.list file. Just put it on its own line. Some newer Debian systems prefer that you put this line in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/[repository].list (where [repository] would likely be opera in this case).

3. Run apt-get update as root to make sure the repositories are working properly. If they are, you should see no errors or warnings pertaining to opera.com. If you see any such messages, try updating again.

4. Install Opera. Run the following command as root:

   apt-get install opera

Once that completes, you should be able to launch Opera without a hitch!