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Can Download Wireshark for Ubuntu Linux?

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Hi everyone! I use Ubuntu Linux and would like to download Wireshark. But in the list of Third-Party Packages, the link to download it for Ubuntu takes me to a page that says that Wireshark software does not exist for Ubuntu. (Here's the link: http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?suite=all&searchon=names&keywords=wireshark)

So does that mean it's not possible for me to download it for my computer? Or is there some other way?

Please note my knowledge of computers is only basic. Thank you so much to anyone who is willing to help me! :)

Stephanie.

asked 08 May '12, 10:34

stephanie's gravatar image

stephanie
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3 Answers:

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$ sudo apt-get install wireshark

should download and install Wireshark for you*. The search page you give also fails to find other packages that I know to exist for Ubuntu (e.g. build-essential), so I would not believe it to be accurate at this time.

*It will probably not be the latest version, since the package repositories tend to lag behind a few releases, but if you absolutely need the latest version, you're better off building it yourself.

answered 08 May '12, 10:43

multipleinterfaces's gravatar image

multipleinte...
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I used to build Wireshark 1.8.2 from source. The version in the Ubuntu repository is ancient. Wireshark 1.8.2 has dissectors for MMS, GOOSE and Sampled Values.

1) Install GTK 2:

apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev


2) Download the libpcap source
3) In the source directory:

 ./configure
 make
 make install

4) Download the wireshark source
5) In the source directory:

 ./configure
 make
 make check
 make install

6) Root privilege is needed to run wireshark - it needs access to network devices
7) To run Wireshark from the Ubuntu application menu:

  gksu wireshark

8) To run wireshark from the command line:

 sudo wireshark

answered 08 Sep '12, 03:56

Neil%20Higgins's gravatar image

Neil Higgins
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edited 08 Sep '12, 10:35

helloworld's gravatar image

helloworld
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Running Wireshark as root is not recommended. Following the steps from another question, you can setup your Ubuntu machine so that Wireshark properly lists the network devices without resorting to sudo.

(08 Sep '12, 10:43) helloworld

(Sorry, I accidentally deleted the comment listing some other packages required to build from source, rather than my comment.)

If you're going to build Wireshark from source, in order to get a newer version than 1.6.x, you'll also need:

flex, bison, autoconf, and possibly python

and you might also want:

zlib-devel, gnutls-devel, krb5-devel, libsmi-devel, GeoIP-devel, portaudio-devel, and lua-devel

to get to use all the features.

apt-get build-dep wireshark might be a good way to get what you need (that'd be for 1.6.x, but that should work for 1.8.x).

(05 Feb '13, 17:29) Guy Harris ♦♦

The only reason to download libpcap source is to build the latest libpcap or to link it with libnl (if linked with libnl, it should do a better job of handling monitor mode; it's not linked with libnl in the binary packages that come with Debian/Ubuntu/etc.).

(05 Feb '13, 17:32) Guy Harris ♦♦

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You can also use Synaptic Package Manager to find and install Wireshark - just search for "wireshark" in the search box.

The search package link shows a number of packages.

answered 10 May '12, 15:45

Guy%20Harris's gravatar image

Guy Harris ♦♦
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