How do you install .deb files?

[DarkOwnagePeace]

I downloaded a few programs I need and they are .deb fles how do I install them?

[ppietro]

I downloaded a few programs I need and they are .deb fles how do I install them?

You don't. Those are for Debian based Linuxes like Ubuntu. Red Hat Enterprise based Linuxes like YDL use .RPM files.

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. Actually - there's a way to do it - but even if you load them, they might not work, due to library inconsistencies between Red Hat Enterprise (YDL) & Debian (Ubuntu). Is there any possibility of downloading RPMs instead? It really is much cleaner & easier. Also - you might be able to find the same programs via YUM (aka Add/Remove Software) if you set up your computer per our instructions here:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3017

[DarkOwnagePeace]

Is their a rpm vesion of "Sixaxis-Gui'" because I really like that program and I can only find it in a .deb. If I can only aquire this as a debian file is their a link to how to force install them as you were saying just to see if it would work?

[ppietro]

Is their a rpm vesion of "Sixaxis-Gui'" because I really like that program and I can only find it in a .deb. If I can only aquire this as a debian file is their a link to how to force install them as you were saying just to see if it would work?

It's not so much a link to force install them. Red Hat really doesn't know what to do with them.

You have to use a program like Alien to convert them:
http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/alien/

Alien is written in Perl - so you don't install it per se. The source tarball is here:
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/source/alien
http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/ma ... .79.tar.gz

There's not much help for this I'm afraid. Google is your friend here.

Cheers,
Paul

[juanito]

You can also manually copy the files you need to the correct locations in the file system.

deb files are ar archives, which contain three files:

* debian-binary
* control.tar.gz
* data.tar.gz

The needed archived files exist in data.tar.gz. Unpacking this file is a two-step process.

First, extract the three files from the deb file (ar archive):

Code: Select all

$ ar vx mypackage.deb


Then extract the contents of data.tar.gz using tar:

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$ tar -xzvf data.tar.gz


The contents of data.tar.gz can also be extracted from the deb package in a one step process:

Code: Select all

$ ar p mypackage.deb data.tar.gz | tar zx