this was harder than it should have been!
Tried to follow this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EC2StartersGuide
But could not get apt-add-repository to work no matter what.
apt-add-repository: command not found
Just lot’s of ‘command not found’ errors, even after installing the python-software-properties.
Finally thanks to this post with clear instruction for manually updating /etc/apt/sources.list http://cpanelforums.net/install-amazon-ec2-api-tools-in-ubuntu/ looks like I got it!
Just in case that site ever goes away, here they are copied!
1) Enable multiverse by adding the following lines to end of the file /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates multiverse
2) Now run the following command to update the packages:
apt-get -y update
3) Now, install ec2 commandline tools.
apt-get install ec2-api-tools