I've just downloaded:

libc5-5.4.46-2.src.rpm
libstdc++-2.95.1_2.10.0-3.i386.rpm
ncurses3-1.9.9e-8.src.rpm

But don't know how to install them. I can't use system-config-packages (i think that's what it's called) to install them by just double-clicking the files. I figure I need to install them from the shell, but I'm sure it needs more than just "-i".

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Or, even better, if someone knows where I can find a copy of Alien that already has these dependencies would be even better.

Thanks

You most likely already have these installed and you need to upgrade.

First check your rpm database to find out what versions you have already if any:

rpm -qa | grep <string>

So something like:

rpm -qa | grep libstdc

Should give the full output of any libstdc packages installed with the version number. If they are version older than what you have downloaded, a simple:

rpm -Uvh libstdc++-2.95.1_2.10.0-3.i386.rpm

But take notice two of the packages you installed are src rpm's. You have to rebuild them to be able to run the above command. I'd say if your not familiar with installing simple RPM's, then you need to skip the src rpm's and find the actual binary rpm's to install before proceeding into rebuilding rpm's on your system.

rpm -ivh libc5-5.4.46-2.src.rpm

that .src.rpm is source code and won't install software. It will install the source code.
You'll need to be root to install. What distro are you using? You may be able to yum or apt-get software with all depedencies resolved.

Thanks for the instructions, but I'm actually trying to get these so I can run alien to convert my isp debian package to rpm so I can install my internet software. In other words, I'm using the net from my Windows partition and don't have any internet support for my linux, so I won't be able to get those packages that way.

I've tried to install Alien but it gives me dependency errors whose files are included in the packages I'm trying to get. I'm using fedora core 4 test 2, so maybe its the system thats giving me the trouble.

There is another app which can convert between deb/rpm/slackpack. It's called checkinstall.

Basically, with checkinstall running, you invoke checkinstall as part of the command to install a package (such as deb) and instruct checkinstall as to what kind of package you want in the end (rpm).

Checkinstall will go through the motions of compiling and installing, and leave you with an installable binary of the chosen type, which you install in the normal manner for that package.

It works with tarballs as well.

Another alternative I like when faced with installing from source tarball, and wanting to be able to upgrade in the futute, is encap (more specifically, the epkg part of encap) which allows me to install a tarball to a specific location, symlink to the directories a tarball would normally be installed in, and later upgrade the installation when a newer version is released.

Stow is supposed to work in a manner similar to encap, but I've not been able to get it to work, as yet.

Since you're using Debian, isn't apt doing the job it's supposed to do?

As far as the .src.rpms are concerned, if you're not averse to learning (the hard way), go to the Red Hat website and navigate through the Documentation links. Find Max-rpm. It's available on-line or downloadable. Read about source rpms and how to install and build binary, installable rpms from them.

Does your ISP really only give you debs? I would ask your ISP for a tarball, RPM or (ideally) an autopackage. Providing only debs is most irregular.

thanks for all the replies guys.

I'm going to check out checkinstall and see how that works out for me. I'm actually using Fedora core 4 as my distro and yeah, my ISP only offered a deb for its software. I'm actually a NetZero user, and maybe I can find a rpm package of this somewhere else?