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Doctore

HOWTO CONVERT DEB PACKAGES - THE EASY WAY

When attempting to install "KDE 3.5.X" packages to the heavely enhanced
"Xandros KDE 3.4.2" from "Debian Etch/Lenny/Sid" repositories, you will
run in to the "broken packages" situation. Which makes "Xandros" unusable
if executing the upgrades.

Fortunately is "Alien" http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/alien/ installed in "Xandros"
by default. Its normally used to convert "deb", "rpm", "slp" and "tgz" packages to
another. But can also be used one step furter - converting "DEB-to-DEB"!
This trick works with other packages than "KDE", also...

How? Just convert an newer "package.deb" to "rpm" (first code line) and then
convert that new "package.rpm" back to "deb" again (second code line). Of course,
this doesnt work in all situations, but at least some newer packages compiled
against "Debian Etch" can be converted for use in "XD4.5/EEE/XS2.0".

aldube · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:22 am Post subject:

Is this a true conversion? Or does this version of Alien simply just wipe out the list of required Dependencies in the DEB's control file allowing you to install it anyways which does lead to the broken dependencies problem... Neutral

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Doctore · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:43 am Post subject:

This "Lazy Mans Trick" changes dependies in the "control" file. And works
when the package is compiled against "Debian Etch" or older libraries.
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aldube · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:47 am Post subject:

OK; I've only ever resorted to the Alien trick as a last resort when the source isn't available on any Debian/Ubuntu deb-src repositories or in plain .tar.gz/.tar.bz2 archive anywhere else like Sourceforge...

I like stability, so I usually go the extra distance to build my own packages... Wink

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