Quote Originally Posted by annamerikin
I guess I wasn't clear. I want to use programs that are neither available as .debs or rpms. In my old Red Hat, I simply compiled these programs under RPM with -ta option and got a RPM that I could install with rpm -i progname.

How do I compile a source tarball under Knoppix so I end up with a .deb which I can install so it is seen by the database?
Read your post earlier today and read this a few minutes ago and thought it might be just what you are looking for checkinstall will make a debian package and install it using dpkg.