We’ll be covering multiple methods here.

you could choose the one that seems most convenient to you.

For demonstration, we’ll be showing everything on the Debian 12 version with GNOME Desktop Environment.

synology nas

However, these methods will work on older versions such as Debian 10 and 11.

On your home screen, select “Activities” in the top left corner of your screen.

In the search bar, start typing “Software & Updates”.

Four hard drivers sticking out of a rack-mount server that’s being used as a NAS.

You should see the tool appear.

The icon has a globe on it.

tap on that icon to open it.

Tux mascot jumping from Windows to Linux.

When the tool launches, you will notice four tabs.

hit the “Other Software” tab.

You will see a list in that tab.

The Terminal app on the MALIBAL Aon S1 laptop

At the bottom, press the “Add” button.

Then, you add theURLor link to that repository.

Lastly, you add the key in of component (main, contrib, non-free).

press the activities text on your screen

This string is what Debian refers to as an APT line.

drop your APT line in the text box.

Then press “Add Source.”

enter software and upates into the search bar and click on it when it appears

You’ll be asked to key in your password.

Enter it and press “Authenticate.”

And that should add the repository to your list.

out of the four tabs, press Other Software

First, let’s fire up the file to see how things work.

you might fire up the file in your preferred text editor.

For this tutorial, we will work on theNano text editor.

In the other software tab, click on the add button

Once done, save the file with the Ctrl+O keyboard combination.

Then exit from the editor with Ctrl+X.

This command can add third-party repositories as well asPersonal Package Archive (PPA)to the sources.list file.

to add the repository, press add source

The syntax is as follows:

So now let’s use this command to add our sample repository.

When asked, press the Enter button to confirm.

Depending on what repository you’re adding, you may need to sign the repository with aGPG keyfor verification.

type your password and press authenticate

Otherwise, the command will fail to add the specified repository.

If you venture to add a repository that already exists, then you’ll get a message saying that.

revamp your system with this command:

And that should add your target repository.

new repository has been added using software and updates tool

Let’s remove our added repository.

See the below command:

That successfully removed the repository.

Debian Repositories Unlocked

Now you know how to add third-party repositories on Debian Linux systems.

the sources.list file opened in Nano text editor

type in the apt line in the sources.list file

run the sudo apt update command

using the add apt repository command to add a new repository

trying to add repository that already exist will display that the repository is already in the list

the command removed our added repository