finding out where software is installed on ubuntu

Pic by Felipe Morin, cc-licensed

For someone not accustomed to the Unix file system hierarchy you might have a hard time figuring out where the heck that package manager installed software you just selected. That is when it doesn’t occur automatically in your Ubuntu Application menu in the first place. Well there is a simply way to figure that out without having to look through all those mysterious usr, var and etc folders.

1. Open up your Synaptic Package manager.
2. Search and select the package you want to know the installation folder of.
3. Right click it, and select Properties.
4. Go to the Installed files tab of the property window.
5. There you have it, all installed files and there location on your disk.

Now you can manually browse to it and run it by double clicking the binary.
If you want to add a shortcut or launcher to your Applications menu for the newly installed app, you can do this by right clicking the Applications menu, and selecting “Edit menus”.
Step by step details on how to add a new entry can be found on ubuntugeek.com.