These instructions assume you have root access to your machine. If not, please see ../InstallingFromTarFiles.txt.
You may prepare for installing Macaulay 2 (with apt-get, gdebi-gtk, or the Synaptic Package Manager) by adding the following line to the file /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://www.math.uiuc.edu/Macaulay2/Repositories/Ubuntu stable main
There are various ways to add that line to that file:
Having added the line, now reload the package lists from the repositories (i.e., click on the "Reload" button) and then click on the Mathematics (Math) section. You should see "macaulay2" on the list, available for download: click on it. It will add both "macaulay2" and "macaulay2-common" to the list of packages to be installed. (Behind the scenes, the package manager will consult our Ubuntu repository.)
Later upgrades to Macaulay 2 will become available to you almost automatically. You can periodically run the Synaptic Package Manager and check for updates by clicking on "Reload" and then on "Mark all Upgrades". Alternatively, when an orange starburst icon is occasionally displayed in your task bar indicating that updates are available from Ubuntu headquarters, you may click on the icon to activate the Update Manager, and then click on "Check" to download any new package information from the software channels, including the Macaulay 2 repository. If an update of Macaulay 2 is available, it will be displayed at the bottom of the list, after the Important Security Updates and the Recommended Updates, among the Other Updates. Press "Install Updates" to have it installed, along with the others. (Our update will be listed as "Not authenticated", and the "list of changes" will not be available. We'll work on that.)
Another way to install Macaulay 2, after that line are added to /etc/apt/sources.list, is with this command line.
sudo apt-get install macaulay2
The preferred way to run Macaulay 2 is with emacs, but the installation procedure described above doesn't teach emacs how to do that. So, after Macaulay 2 is successfully installed as described above, the first thing you should do is to run M2 and to issue the Macaulay 2 command setupEmacs(). That will ensure that the next time you start emacs, it knows how to edit *.m2 files, and it knows that when you press the f12 key, it should start Macaulay 2 running in an interactive buffer.
If the procedure above doesn't work for you, then you may install the package files files manually (they all have names of the form *.deb), but starting with version 1.0, they come in pairs, one containing the architecture dependent files (in this directory), and one containing the architecture independent files and having "common" in the name. The latter can be obtained in Common/.
Here are the architecture dependent files, but we hope the automatic procedure above works for you, so you don't have to download any of these files manually. With luck, you will not have to visit this page again nor read these instructions again. Please let us know if that doesn't work out for you.