I'm trying to install octave. I typed in "octave", and the terminal told me that octave wasn't installed, and that:

You will have to enable the component called 'universe'

How do I do that? Ubuntu support suggested it's in "software sources", but I can't find any option for that there. Incidentally, I can't tick any of the boxes under the eebuntu software tab in software sources, I don't know if that's relevant.

I have very little idea what I'm doing, so if responses could be ultra-simple that would be good!

Have a look at http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Mave ... ge_Manager and let us know if you're still stuck