Install Package Dependencies After a DPKG Package Install

I’ve had a couple of people mail asking about my “frigging apt” comment in a previous post (the last paragraph). It’s actually as simple as the comment implies. Here’s an example -

  wget http://ftp.dk.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/v/vmware-package/vmware-package_0.22_i386.deb
  dpkg -i vmware-package_0.22_i386.deb
  apt-get install -f

  # get prompted about installing lots of packages

I don’t have any really well thought out reasons to not like this approach - in the few cases I’ve tried it I’ve found it to work; it just feels a little… icky.