.deb files on RH
 

Hi,

I am new to this Linux environment and right now I am using the RedHat 9.0. May I know whether is there any way for me to install a debian (.deb) file? As I know, .deb is for Debian while .tar is for RedHat. But now I have downloaded a .deb file and I only have RedHat 9.0 installed. Is there any possible way for me to install the .deb file?

Thank you very much.

Regards,
MKSN

You can convert a deb file to rpm, using a tool called alien. The resulting rpm may or may not work on rpm based distros.

First to clear up a bit about different package formats

Debian / Ubuntu etc. Use .deb Files
RedHat / Fedora / Mandriva / Suse / many others use RPM (.rpm) files

tar / tar.gz / tgz / tar.bz2 files can be used across different distros. These are often generic, uncompiled programs that need to be compiled and installed, although some do include their own installer which is run after extracting the files from the archive.

The .deb / .rpm files contain the program files, but also have information on dependencies and any scripts that need running before or after installation. These may be system specific so it's always best to get the correct package, designed for the system you are using.

The alternative is to use the tar file, but this often needs to be compiled manually, which may require other software / libraries installed on your machine.

If possible always use an appropriate package created for your distribution.

The alien command can be used to convert between the different package formats, but you are far better off trying to get the correct package for your distribution.
A correct package will handle all the dependencies correctly and has been tested for your distribution, whereas using a package that has been converted may end up not working due to failed dependencies.


If you are determined to install a debian package onto a RPM based system then you can download the alien program:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...?group_id=1625

You will also need to get hold of the dpkg commands etc.

Once it is all installed you can then use:

alien --to-rpm package.deb
then install it using your normal add/remove programs
or
alien -i --to-rpm package.deb
to perform this in a single step.

If I haven't convinced you already this is not recommended. It is far safer (if possible) to get either a RPM package designed for your system, or a generic tar archive.

Thanks for the information.

I was trying to find the .rpm package for the xosd libraries for ARM architecture but all I can find is the .deb package found at the Debian website.

Anyway, thank you very much for all the helps!

Cheers.

You could try downloading the source tar ball and installing from that: http://www.ignavus.net/xosd-2.2.12.tar.gz

You may need to install some development packages / libraries which are normally available on your original distribution disks.

Thanks Mr. Penguintutor.

Right now I have able to come out a simple XOSD program on my PC. But how bout if I want to use a cross-compiler (arm-linux-gcc) to compile it?

Cross-compiling is beyond what I've been involved with.

you need to read the INSTALL / readme docs and also have an understanding of the autoconf / automake tools.
See: http://sourceware.org/autobook/autob...obook_toc.html.

When using the ./configure stage you need to add the appropriate options.
e.g.