rpm instead of apt-get

[A. Jorge Garcia]

I'm used to installing apps to my hdinstalled PCs using apt-get. What do you do when what you need to install only comes as an rpm? I'm trying to install Object Based Phoenix BASIC (a vb clone for linux) from http://www.janus-software.com but phoenix is distributed only as rpms.

TIA,
AJG

[champagnemojo]

You can use alien to convert the rpm into a deb.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

OK, I tried alien, but I must be doing something wrong. In a shell I ran alien blah.phoenix.blah.rpm and just sat there forever without anything happening....

TIA,
AJG

[fingers99]

It should work, but what's with the blah?

From memory (and after half a bottle of lambrusco):

alien name_of_package.rpm

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Sorry, that's what I menat by blahlah... = whateverthenameof the appis....

Is alien slow if the rpm is a few MBs? I think there are 2 rpms for this package to work. One is almost 2MB and the other almost 4MB.

Thanx,
AJG

[Markus]

If memory serves me it's:
alien -i bläh.rpm (to install directly)
alien -d bläh.rpm (to just convert to .deb)

[ZeroKun]

Actually, youre thinking of the dpkg command, markus. For RPMs use "alien --install blah.rpm".

[Markus]

Well, it's a bit faster to write -i than --install and I do believe they do the same thing. This time I even checked man alien.

[ZeroKun]

I think i used -i instead of --install out of habit and it didnt work, but my memory is fuzzy since it was a day ago >.>

[Markus]

That's nothing, my memory is fuzzy all the time