How to add the Universe & Multiverse repositories from the command line

Enabling the Universe & Multiverse repositories will give you access to tons of software that your Ubuntu system doesn’t give you access to by default. Here is how to enable them.

1. Open a Terminal. Applications > Accessories > Terminal
   
2. Type in:

   sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

   This makes a copy of the file we’re going to modify, in case we need to restore it later.

3. Then:

   sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

   You can use nano, or your text editor of choice. For example, if you preferred gedit, you’d enter:

   gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

4. Now, find the lines that look like these below, and remove the ” # ” that appears in front of them.
   • deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
   • deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
   • deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe
   • deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe
   • deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
   • deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
   • deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates multiverse
   • deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates multiverse
5. Save the file and exit.
6. Update with the new repository(s):

   sudo apt-get update

Now you can install software from the Universe & Multiverse repositories. This software should appear in Add/Remove when you tell it to show you All available applications. Click the picture to enlarge.