APT - With Your Favorite Distribution

One of the most-heard complains from people who use distributions like Red Hat, Mandrake or SuSE is the "dependency hell" problem. You want to install an RPM and bang -- you have a dependency problem. There have been a few attempts to overcome dependency problems: SuSE with their YOU (Your Online Update), Mandrake with URPMI, and Redhat with their UP2date program. There is also a solution from Aduva called Aduvizor, but it's not supporting the latest distributions yet. Read on to learn about another interesting solution ... One of the solutions is Ximian Red Carpet (which is available to most of the distributions, freely or by subscription for increased download speed), however Red Carpet has one big problem -- if the package is not on Ximian Red-Carpet servers (like, umm, KDE packages), you're (again) on your own.

Then there is another solution from Connectiva in Brazil, which has made something called APT4RPM -- basically an APT wrapper around RPM database on your machines, so you can use all of Debian's APT features (sans DSELECT feature) to upgrade your packages, or your entire distribution. (So now you can use your favorite distribution AND APT to update it.)

Two open source developers have improved Connectiva's solution to work with ANY RPM-4 based solution, and the [not finished yet but seems pretty stable solution] is at APT4RPM project pages in sourceforge. I have decided to give a test on my Redhat 7.2 machine. I installed the binaries, edited the /etc/apt/sources.list (just remove the # from your distribution's mirror), typed "apt-get dist-update," crossed my fingers -- and lo and behold, 48 new packages were installed, 7 were upgraded, and I only had to press "enter" to start the ball rolling!

So, for those of you who want to test it -- the URL is above (and if you could help with creating mirrors for your favorite distribution - that would be very helpful, thank you), you might want to try it. Just don't forget to read the FAQ before doing anything, and report bugs to the authors. Note: although the binaries are for Red Hat, the SRPMS are right there so you can just recompile it on your favorite distribution. Enjoy.

Comments

Re:The problem is with the RPM format...

[alister]

I'm a Debian convert. The problem is not with "us" in this case - it's with you. You claim that "the people who use Debian are political wackos and elitist assholes!" What, every last one of them? That's a singularly unintelligent comment, and you should know it.

What makes it even more unintelligent is that I can't imagine not using a distro because of the views of some others who do. I don't use Red hat just because the British Royal Family do (did?) - that would be silly.

I reckon you should just grow up - and I reckon that the -1: Flamebait moderations you'll soon receive are entirely justified.

Hope you're not karma-whoring...

Re:The problem is with the RPM format...

[Elbereth]

Contribute? If I have to fix a distribution or it works against me, then it's definitely not the right distribution for me.

For instance, Debian is probably just now in the process of going to the 2.4 kernel. I'll bet almost anything that the stable Debian kernel is still at 2.2.

That's crazy. I run 2.4, and I've yet to have a single problem. What's that? I don't run real servers? How about a dual processor Pentium III and a DEC Alpha?

Dependency Hell.

[BrookHarty]

Personally. I think linux distros are just making it worse. With everyone using their own library versions and core software versions that are different, user functionality is shit.

I'm going to reference windows for a second, DLL hell use to be a major problem, but now, people can install library's in their own directory, why cant we do this with linux? If you say disk space you should be smacked. Id rather have a tar of a pre compiled binaries and libraries and an install.sh script than to put up with the crap every distro is taking. You should be able to take any distro binary and move them between distros. Until the day you can take a program and install it on any Linux distro, it will NEVER be on the same playing field as windows.

Linus needs to step back, come up with a new layout, let people add modules, libraries and programs without this nightmare. The answer is here, but everyone keeps bitching about disk space. Time to move on folks, lets have a little data replication to keep the system working. The need for 20+ library directories is over, kick the old habit about doing the same thing the same way. DAMN It, are we going to have these same articles every 3 months, and just let some vendor talk about how his package installer will solve world hunger?

I have enough complaints about linux distros, but I take the quirks for software.

-
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.- Scott Adams, 'The Dilbert Principle'

Re:The problem is with the RPM format...

[runswithd6s]

You are such a desktop luser.