Installing rpm in Ubuntu without using alien?

[SHENGTON]

Hello guys, good afternoon.

When we try to install deb files in Ubuntu we use this "dpkg" command.

I know we need to install the "alien" program to convert the "rpm" file to "deb" file.

But is there a way that we only need to type the command "rpm -i some-software-1.3-i386.rpm" to install "rpm" files in Ubuntu?

Thanks and God bless.

[bigtomrodney]

No, there is no rpm database or framework running in Ubuntu. Ideally you should avoid running rpms at all in Ubuntu and instead use at least *.deb files and preferably those built specifically for Ubuntu. If you are required to regularly load an rpm package to Ubuntu you could create a script to convert the package and then load it using dpkg.

[SHENGTON]

I just install now the "rpm" package from the Synaptic Package Manager and I can install rpm packages using this command: sudo rpm -i software.rpm

Thanks and God bless.

[meton_magis]

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Saved another one there bigtomrodney

[bigtomrodney]

I stand corrected

EDIT - I was wondering why I hadn't come across that before, and it seems there's a good reason! From the package page

If you want to install Red Hat Packages then please use the alien package. Using rpm directly will bypass the Debian packaging system!

It seems that you may put yourself in a situation where you overwrite files from other .deb packages, not to mention the knockon effects of dependencies in this scenario!

[reed9]

I'm curious what package you're trying to install that only exists in rpm and not in deb?

[jayd512]

...It seems that you may put yourself in a situation where you overwrite files from other .deb packages, not to mention the knockon effects of dependencies in this scenario!

So I'm guessing this isn't part of the Linux adventure?

Seriously though, I agree that it's a bad idea to mix'em... and to echo reed, what package is it, anyway?

[meton_magis]

I would suggest that rather then mixing rpm and deb in your package manager, install using deb since that is ubuntu's default, and then build stuff from source, keeping it in /usr/local/bin . It is not that dificult to build from source, and it is an invaluble skill to learn, as you may not be able to find ANY binary packages for some programs, or you wont find any packages with the options you want (This happens A LOT on distros like fedora, ubuntu, suse, mandrivia, and any other of the large distros. They are made to satisfy 90% of the people, 90% of the time, not to satisfy YOUR needs).

To keep stuff organized, when building from source, I use prefixes such as `./configure --prefix /usr/loca/bin/gimp` for if I was building gimp. Then, if I want to delete it, I just need to `rm -rf /usr/local/bin/gimp` and remove the symbolic link I put from /usr/local/gimp/bin/gimp, or whatever to /usr/local/bin.

[reed9]

What about just using checkinstall when building from source, so the package manager will track it?

[bigtomrodney]

What about just using checkinstall when building from source, so the package manager will track it?

It's a long time since I had to build something from source but when I did checkinstall was my main man.