• Wed, Nov 2 2005

HOWTO: Install an RPM Package on a Debian Box?

While installing OpenOffice.org 2.0 today I had the opportunity to run across an application named alien. OOo is only available in rpm format and I run a Debian machine. Alien allowed me to install those RPMs on my Debian box.

From the man alien command:

alien is a program that converts between Red Hat rpm, Debian deb, Stampede slp, Slackware tgz, and Solaris pkg file formats. If you want to use a package from another linux distribution than the one you have installed on your system, you can use alien to convert it to your preferred package format and install it. It also supports LSB packages.

To install my OOo rpms on my Debian machine, I opened a terminal window, became root and in in the directory that contained the RPMs I wanted to install, I typed:

alien -i *.rpm

Use the alien man page to check out how you can change packages from one format to another. A very handy utility.

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  • http://www.geoffball.ca/blog/ geoff

    Based on what it’s doing, I expected I’d have more errors while using alien. I’ve used it three times now, and have had zero errors (during both the conversion and the install).

  • http://www.jonwatson.ca Jon

    I’ve never used it before today, but using it to install 28 OOo RPMs is quite the inaugural challenge.

    No probs…freakin’ neat!

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  • Jeff

    What if the rpm file name ends with .bin?

  • http://www.newlinuxuser.com Jon

    Hi Jeff,

    I’m not sure what you mean. Do you have a file with that ends in ‘bin’? If so, you should be able to just chmod it to make it executable and run it.

    chmod +x filename.bin
    ./filename.bin

    Am I close? Give me some more info and we’ll figure it out.

  • http://www.johnsebooks.com John

    I loaded debian on my two sons computers and added alien because some of the games they want are rpm and tar.gz but after after using alien to install I don’t find the programs. I find files in the name but they dont function (execute sorry to many microsoft years). the command I used as root is alien -i the drive whirrs for a while and then my name pops back up as if its done…. No games????
    Help?

  • http://www.newlinuxuser.com Jon

    Hi John,

    I have two thoughts on this. First, perhaps this entry (click) on how to find files on your system may help you out.

    If not, can you give me more information on what you’re installing? If I know the actual applications I may be able to install them myself and then go looking for them to see where they went.

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  • shailesh

    ok sir this is fine, but i want to install .deb package into red hat fedora 4. i have tried .plz.. help me

  • http://www.newlinuxuser.com Jon

    You can still use alien. Alien will convert a package into a package for the platform it’s being run on.

  • Austin

    hi jon… I am having the same problem that you did on your sons computers.. I downloaded a .rpm then used alien to install the program…
    I can see the files it installed but cant seem to execute the program. I can’t figure out how to start them. it was not added to the menu..

    By the way the program I downloaded was winamp

  • http://www.newlinuxuser.com Jon

    Hi Austin,

    I’m confused. Winamp is a Windows application. As far as I know, it doesn’t come in RPM format since it doesn’t come for Linux at all.

  • http://www.rootbsd.net freebsd vps

    Maybe you meant another mp3 player, such as xamp which is made for Linux?

  • http://www.vanax.nl webdesign

    Thx for the support.. but i got some errors with the scripts not converting..? any body now how i can use the scripts.

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