QGIS Workshop

Installing on Ubuntu [10.04]

enable synaptic to know about the ppa (personal package archive), first read some instructions
you need to find the ppa name as described here: convenient method
use the ppa name: ppa:ubuntugis/ppa
open Terminal and run command: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ppa
expect a result that gets keyserver for ppa which looks like:
Executing: gpg --ignore-time-conflict --no-options --no-default-keyring --secret-keyring /etc/apt/secring.gpg --trustdb-name /etc/apt/trustdb.gpg --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --primary-keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv 6B827C12C2D425E227EDCA75089EBE08314DF160
gpg: requesting key 314DF160 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: key 314DF160: public key "Launchpad ubuntugis-stable" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)
now go to System | Admin | Synaptic Package Manager and UPDATE THE PACKAGE LIST to get the new ppa: sudo apt-get update
now you should be able to search for qgis with synaptic and get all the needed packages and dependencies to install

Installing on Debian [5 lenny]

first, add the needed lines to the file sources.list
open a terminal and go to: cd /etc/apt
to be safe backup your file first: cp sources.list sources_BAK.list
change to superuser su - then enter the su password
add the following two lines to the file: vi sources.list
deb http://qgis.org/debian lenny main
deb-src http://qgis.org/debian lenny main
now you can get the updates: sudo apt-get update
then you can install qgis: sudo apt-get install qgis
QGIS should be on the menu now under Applications | Science
note! by default Debian might not have the fonts you need!
for Chinese, recommend running the following two commands:
apt-get install xfonts-intl-chinese xfonts-base unifont
apt-get install ttf-arphic-bkai00mp ttf-arphic-bsmi00lp
similar steps will get you other fonts. you should be good to go!