Mydsl for other debian distros

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Mydsl for other debian distros
started by: loell

Posted by loell on Oct. 27 2005,02:11

HI, i know this is an odd question,

but is it possible to use "DEBTODSL" in other debian base distros?
and also load them with MYDSL. in other words, is it possible to use dsl packaging system in other debian base distro?

Posted by mikshaw on Oct. 27 2005,02:21

Yes. I haven't looked into the deb2dsl script, but i assume that it just creates an archive file using the dpkg info from an installed deb file.

You can create a tar.gz extensions on any system with tar and gzip, provided the application was built and installed to /opt using the appropriate libs, and uci files are done the same way, only you also need cloop installed.

Any way they are built, you need to test them in a vanilla DSL CD or frugal system (no restore or apps installed) to make sure the DSL package includes any dependencies that are not a part of DSL.

Posted by WDef on Oct. 27 2005,08:29

Quote

also load them with MYDSL

If by this you mean you want a load a .dsl extension on another debian-based hd-installed system, all you have to do is cd / and unpack the extension with tar. That's how I put the java FF plugin .dsl on my debian system, rather than download it again. As I recall that also required placing a symlink to the plugin so that FF could find it.

But there are issues to consider which are similar to those incurred by randomly compiling and installing anything on your debian system.

In the case of extensions that write files to /bin, /sbin etc , and where I am likely to want apt to very much keep track of these, I'd think about it before installing these on my debian system. With the "green" extensions you'd be safer since you can just delete these files, then apt-get install the newer regular deb package.

While apt can probably be coerced into seeing an installed dsl extension as exactly the same as a corresponding deb package, so it could subsequently be upgraded to a newer version in the usual way through apt-get or aptitude, I'm not sure if it'd be best to do this.

Also I'd consider the issue of dsl primarily using Woody whereas my debian system is Sarge. It may be best not to scatter Woody files across a Sarge system.

Then there are extensions containing stuff that was compiled against the 2.4.26 kernel. These may work with another kernel, on the other hand they may not.

My advice would be to avoid doing this if you are in doubt.

Posted by loell on Oct. 27 2005,09:57

btw my real intention is to try making a dsl package from ubuntu to be installed in ubuntu at the remote area with no internet connection
assuming that the dsl packaging system will solve the necessary dependencies, i'll just give it a try if it works..

thanks a lot,..

Posted by mikshaw on Oct. 27 2005,15:16

I overlooked the part about loading the packages in other systems. It might work, and it might not, depending on the individual package. myDSL packages are built to include ALL dependencies that are not available in a vanilla DSL (except in a few situations, such as with gtk2 apps)...there is no dependency solving anywhere but in the process of creating the package. The packager is the one doing the work, and at install time the only action occuring is extracting the files and setting up the menu and icon.

You can build a similar package for Ubuntu, but as far as dealing with the dependencies only you can do that. We can't tell you what libs and programs you have on your remote system, so it's just trial-and-error which will tell you if it works.