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

rpm

[ChazeFroy]

rpm -Fvh slackware.rpm

a change

[Nate Fox]

Instead of whining, I've decided to merely let someone else do it for me.

Personally, I dont hear too many new comments on /. anymore. I think that instead of writing everything out, we should recycle electrons and just use links to what someone else already said (especially if they got +karma on theirs, then you can karma whore while not being original!)

Re:a change

[Speare]

Personally, I dont hear too many new comments on /. anymore. I think that instead of writing everything out, we should recycle electrons and just use links to what someone else already said

That sounds a lot like an old Bill Gates legend, where he was tired of how circular arguments about technological religion would get. He joked that he needed a more terse way of talking to avoid the lengthy redundancies. "If I said 13, for example, that would mean 'that's the stupidest thing I ever heard,' and you could reply with 27 for 'maybe you should find somebody else to reinvent the wheel, then.'"

Re:a change

[skajohan]

That sounds a bit like the story about the two old lighthousekeepers.

Two old lighthousekeepers lived in, well, a lighthouse far away from pretty much everything. All they did was sitting around all day telling each other jokes. Since they had lived together in the lighthouse for many, many years, they alread knew all the jokes and didn't laugh much at them. Who likes old jokes, right? But they didn't have anything else to do so they stuck to telling the old jokes anyway. One day they came up with the idea of enumerating all the jokes. That way they spent less time telling jokes and more time saying "haha". (They were already pretty tired of the old jokes, remember.) So the days went by something like this.

Keeper1: 16!
Keeper2: Haha.
Keeper2: 4!
Keeper1: Haha.

Well, you get the idea. But one day something exciting happened:

Keeper1: 12!
Keeper2: Haha.
Keeper2: 14!
Keeper1: Haha.
Keeper1: 256!
And keeper2 fell off his chair and rolled around laughing his ass off, because he had never heard that one before.

Ok, now I'll go hide in the corner of combined off-topic and lame joke shame.

the posibilities

[abdulla]

could this be what converts the hordes to linux? everyday you see it become friendly and more open to the newbies, now all you need is start button, a windows update icon and a blue screen of death.

Re:the posibilities

[nicarley]

The new SUSE comes with a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Emulator--does that count?

Where's the aspirin?

[cscx]

From slackware complaining that it's missing every .o file on the planet, to Red Hat bitching that I need a new version of RPM (and the new version of RPM telling me that I need another dependency... and so on) I've seen it all. But I hear there's this new Linux XP® coming out that'll solve all my problems! All I need to do is upgrade...

Red Hat -> Debian via Connectiva apt

[Nater]

Back in August I decided to give Debian a try. I downloaded the apt and dpkg SRPMs from Connectiva and installed them on my Red Hat 7.0 system. It took a bit of shoe horning to get them in, but I made it happen and they worked.

Then I went into the /etc/apt directory and pointed everything at the Debian archives instead of Connectiva. At first I tried to just aim it at ftp.redhat.com and update my 7.0 install, but apt and the Red Hat archive didn't like each other. Anyway, I ran apt-get update and got the Debian lists, then was able (with a lot of manual this-and-that that I really should have documented) to apt-get dist-upgrade into Debian stable without rebooting.

Since I was dialing up at the time, it took a while, like a week or so, just to download it all. Once I got everything installed, I let it run for a while for shits and giggles. For a period of almost a month, I had a couple of virtual consoles logged in, a couple displaying Debian's /etc/issue and a couple displaying Red Hat's /etc/issue. Then I decided to do the kernel, too, and rebooted.

I'm still finding a bit of Red Hat cruft now and then. Oh well.

Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"?

[SlaveTroll]

Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"? BSD, Lunix, Debian and Mandrake are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Linyos Torovoltos, before the Russians lost the Cold War. It is based on a program called "xenix", which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by hackers to break into other people's computer systems to steal credit card numbers. They may also be used to break into people's stereos to steal their music, using the "mp3" program. Torovoltos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as "telnet", which is used by hackers to connect to machines on the internet without using a telephone. Your son may try to install "lunix" on your hard drive. If he is careful, you may not notice its presence, however, lunix is a capricious beast, and if handled incorrectly, your son may damage your computer, and even break it completely by deleting Windows, at which point you will have to have your computer repaired by a professional. If you see the word "LILO" during your windows startup (just after you turn the machine on), your son has installed lunix. In order to get rid of it, you will have to send your computer back to the manufacturer, and have them fit a new hard drive. Lunix is extremely dangerous software, and cannot be removed without destroying part of your hard disk surface.

Re:Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"?

[3am]

Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"? BSD, Lunix, Debian and Mandrake are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Linyos Torovoltos, before the Russians lost the Cold War. It is based on a program called "xenix", which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by hackers to break into other people's computer systems to steal credit card numbers. They may also be used to break into people's stereos to steal their music, using the "mp3" program. Torovoltos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as "telnet", which is used by hackers to connect to machines on the internet without using a telephone. Your son may try to install "lunix" on your hard drive. If he is careful, you may not notice its presence, however, lunix is a capricious beast, and if handled incorrectly, your son may damage your computer, and even break it completely by deleting Windows, at which point you will have to have your computer repaired by a professional. If you see the word "LILO" during your windows startup (just after you turn the machine on), your son has installed lunix. In order to get rid of it, you will have to send your computer back to the manufacturer, and have them fit a new hard drive. Lunix is extremely dangerous software, and cannot be removed without destroying part of your hard disk surface.

that was bizarre and hilarious :) for those of you not browing at -1...

Re:Unsolvable problems

[kigrwik]

I was thinking of this problem, even while writing my previous message,
and obviously it's not easily solved.

I did a potato install for a friend yesterday, and upgraded to woody.
Thank god apt didn't spit out all suggested packages when I did the dist-upgrade !
The xterm would have run out of ink ! :)

Best solution would probably be:
1. run dselect-upgrade for upgrades, even if it's a bit enthusiastic with removing stuff
2. actually *look* (gasp!) at the package's description when doing an apt-get install
3. use Clippy(tm) ! Something like:
"I see you're installing libfoo.
To get a better foo experience, I could install libbar for you !
(Note: you need to be registered at DebianPassPort)
"
;-)

Wow!

[BigJimSlade]

First Debian is ported to Windows. Now it's being ported to Red Hat? I'm so confused :-P