How to install additional LaTeX packages in Debian/Ubuntu

Question

I just installed texlive-latex-base package from official Ubuntu repo, now I have to add some modules (ucs and utf8x) for compiling .pdf files with Cyrillic encoding, so, how to install it? I found tlmgr - the TeX Live manager, but I have no such command, it seems that I could install tlmgr using this: "You may end up in a situation where tlmgr itself does not run due to Perl errors, failed updates, or some other reason. If this happens, the simplest way forward is to download and run update-tlmgr-latest.sh" Am I right?

Update:

argon@vprime:~/Documents/diplom$ sudo bash update-tlmgr-latest.sh 
[sudo] password for argon: 
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing TeX Live Manager Updater..........................................................................................................................................................................
./runme.sh: Cannot find TeX Live root using kpsewhich --var-value=SELFAUTOPARENT.
./runme.sh: Please call update-tlmgr-latest.sh --noexec --keep
./runme.sh: and then call the runme.sh script in the unpacked directory
./runme.sh: with the directory root as the first argument, something like:
./runme.sh: sh runme.sh /path/to/your/texlive/installation/2010
argon@vprime:~/Documents/diplom$ dpkg -L tex
tex-common          texlive-binaries    texlive-doc-base
texlive-base        texlive-common      texlive-latex-base

So, path to which package should i use?

Answer 1

1. The most straightforward you can do is to open Synaptic package manager, or Ubuntu software center, or whatever other distro manager you have and look for a system package which enhances your TeX distribution with packages you need.
2. The second option you have is to get the packages you need from CTAN, install (unpack) them into your LOCALTEXMF tree and rerun texhash so that your TeX will find them. This however might sound easier than it is for more complex packages, fonts, bibliography styles, etc.
3. The last option, is to download and install the latest TeXLive distribution, where you would have tlmgr and friends. If you have a good network connection and enough space on your disk, just go with the full installation.

Personally, I very much recommend to go with the last option, that is the full TeXLive install from scratch. The point is that Ubuntu still ships TeXLive 2009 packages, while recently TeXLive 2012 came out. Going with the most recent distro will ensure that you will have all the new things done in XeTeX, or LuaTeX which might be of your interest, since as you speak you are after non-latin fonts/encodings and such.

Before doing the full TeXLive install, do not forget to purge the Ubuntu TeXLive 2009 installation, otherwise the two will clash.