HOWTO: Aspell

[Snowhog]

On my system, aspell was reported as installed, yet I had no spell checking in documents I opened. The option was there in Tools > Spelling... and Tools > Spelling (from cursor)..., but they didn't work.

I first looked at apt-cache show aspell which showed:

Recommends: aspell-en | aspell-dictionary | aspell6a-dictionary
Suggests: aspell-doc, spellutils

I tried (as root) apt-get install --simulate aspell-en aspell-dictionary aspell6a-dictionary aspell-doc spellutils and got:

Package aspell-dictionary is a virtual package provided by:
aspell-uz 0.6.0-1
aspell-uk 1.6.0-1
.
.
.
aspell-am 0.03-1-3
You should explicitly select one to install.
E: Package aspell-dictionary has no installation candidate

So I removed that package and reran the command and got:

Package aspell6a-dictionary is a virtual package provided by:
aspell-no 2.0.10-3.1
aspell-fi 0.7-17.1
aspell-da 1.6.18-1.1
You should explicitly select one to install.
E: Package aspell6a-dictionary has no installation candidate

So I removed that as well and got no errors. Simulation done, I ran the command for real:

apt-get install aspell-en aspell-doc spellutils

and all went well. I opened a text document and clicked on Tools > Spelling and voila, Aspell she was a running!

So, to identify the individual language dictionary packages that you want to install, just open a console and type:

apt-get install --simulate aspell-dictionary

and you'll be presented with the possible choices. aspell6a-dictionary only points to the three language dictionary packages listed above.

So, to recap, let's say you wanted to install the English, Danish, and Italian language dictionaries. You would run:

apt-get install aspell-en aspell-da aspell-it aspell-doc spellutils

Additional language dictionaries would just be installed with:

apt-get install aspell-xx

where xx is the string after the - and before the version number.

[askrieger]

Re: HOWTO: Aspell

Personally, I just search Synaptic for aspell. Grab the dictionaries I want from the "recommends" list (e.g aspell-en) and add aspell-doc and spellutils from the suggested list. Works for me. However, the technique suggested by Snowhog will work in cases where the easy way fails.

[Snowhog]

Re: HOWTO: Aspell



Okay, sometimes I "think" to hard. I've been working from the CLI for a while, and completely forgot about Synaptic. :P