can't get alien

Forum: Apt-get
Topic: can't get alien
started by: JohnS

Posted by JohnS on Dec. 31 2004,22:59

I'm trying to convert a rpm to DSL using alien, but when I apt-get alien I get a bunch of package not installed messages. When I try and get THOSE packages as well I get some messages about conflicts, it looks like a package requires a certain version but a different version is being installed. I have problems with debconf ,debconf-utils and perl, perl-base. Any clues what to do about this? This is my first attempt at using apt-get and I don't really know what I'm doing.

Thanks for any help,

John S.

Posted by clivesay on Dec. 31 2004,23:05

Change your /etc/apt/sources.lst file from stable to unstable and then do an apt-get update. Then you can apt-get install alien. There are still some other packages you will need. Just go to debian.org and find the ones you need.

I just converted an rpm with alien for DSL just a few days ago so it will work. I thought about creating an alien.dsl but there are alot of files that are extracted during install and I haven't had the time to dig into it.

Good luck

Chris

Posted by JohnS on Dec. 31 2004,23:26

Thanks Chris, that worked! I had changed the sources.list but hadn't done the update.

Boy it sure grabs a bunch of stuff

Now to see if I can actually get the rpm converted.

Thanks again,

John S.

Posted by JohnS on Dec. 31 2004,23:46

I got alien to extract the contents but it didn't make a deb file. Thats actually fine since I can make a .dsl from the extracted structure and load it anytime I want. The app is expecting some environment variables that don't exist in DSL so I'm going to have to set those up first, but thats about it to get it working.

Well thats about it today for delving into new things.

John S.