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Alien is a program that converts between the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and slackware tgz file formats. If you want to use a package from another distribution than the one you have installed on your system, you can use alien to convert it to your preferred package format and install it.
Despite the large version number, alien is still (and will probably always be) rather experimental software. It has been used by many people for many years, but there are still many bugs and limitations.
Alien should not be used to replace important system packages, like sysvinit, shared libraries, or other things that are essential for the functioning of your system. Many of these packages are set up differently by Debian and Red Hat, and packages from the different distributions cannot be used interchangably. In general, if you can’t uninstall the package without breaking your system, don’t try to replace it with an alien version.
Install alien in debian
#apt-get install alien
This will install all the required packages.Now you can start converting your .rpm files to .deb packages.
Available Options for alien
Convert the package.rpm into a package.deb
#alien -d package-name.rpm
Convert the package.rpm into a package.deb, and install the generated package.
#alien -i package-name.rpm
If you want to keeps alien from changing the version number use the following command
#alien -k rpm-package-file.rpm
Example
Suppose we have a avg antivirus avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.rpm file
To convert .rpm to debian
#alien -k avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.rpm
Now you should be having avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.deb file
To install .deb file
#dpkg -i avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.deb
If you don’t use -k option you should see avg71lms_r30-1_i386.deb file the difference is it will add 1
Install alien in Ubuntu
$sudo apt-get install alien
You can check the above section for available options
Example
Suppose we have a avg antivirus avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.rpm file
To convert .rpm to debian
$sudo alien -k avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.rpm
Now you should be having avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.deb file
To install .deb file
$sudo dpkg -i avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.deb
If you don’t use -k option you should see avg71lms_r30-1_i386.deb file the difference is it will add 1
If you want more available options for alien check alien man page
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October 6th, 2006 at 2:05 am
Why not just install the .rpm file directly using smart, rather than converting it using alien and then installing it with dpkg.
One less step involved that way.
http://labix.org/smart
http://labix.org/smart/features
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/source/smart
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/07/07/1612259
October 6th, 2006 at 7:24 am
thanks for your suggestion.I will write an article how to use smart after testing
February 12th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
I think using alien is safer in some cases, as you can look at the generated
.deb file and see what files it will install to make sure the package will
not change any critical files.
March 1st, 2007 at 7:20 pm
the instructions helped me a lot with my installation.
thanks and keep up the good work
newbie
March 5th, 2007 at 11:25 am
I have used Alien last night to install both AVG and the newest K9copy, but i have problems with both. By the looks of things i cannot update AVG as i do not have the privileges, and K9copy does not have a launcher, so i have to boot it from the terminal. Can anyone help me on either of these (i might be wrong with the AVG one, it might only let you update when new updates are available but tells u that you dont have the privileges other wise)
March 6th, 2007 at 5:59 am
I converted an rpm of KDMTheme to a .deb file and it seems to have installed but I can’t find the program for the life of me. Please help!
April 15th, 2007 at 9:32 am
I just installed ubuntu on my laptop and cant figure out how to install anything on it… I’ve been using windows my whole life! I have a pile of rpm, tar.gz(2)’s, and kth files on desktop waiting to be installed. I am a complete n00b.
I’m scratching my head over this one…
any help would be great!
email:
j.kerns@hotmail.com
April 15th, 2007 at 10:04 am
if you want to install .rpm you need to open terminal and you need to install from command line.
If you want to unpack tar.gz file
you need to use the following commnad
tar xzvf filename.tar.gz
If you want unpack tar.gz2 file you need to use the following command
tar jxvf filename.tar.gz2
May 9th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Why not just refer a new user to the Package Manager? He’ll most likely find all he wants there easily?
August 7th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I have the same problem as #5 Shinbu-Otaku about the AVG. : i cannot update AVG as i do not have the privileges. Can anyone help me. (i might be wrong with the AVG one, it might only let you update when new updates are available but tells u that you dont have the privileges other wise)
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:25 am
Hi.. i got this new machine installed with linux on it now i am trying to install rpm packages and to configure the mail server it gives me a hard time i can;t find the solution to it.i have been google it but still then i can;t seem to find the right solutions. if can anyone help me, i real need to see this. thanks
any help will be appreciated.
July 13th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Folks, if you are a new user trying to install Linux software, the tool described in this post is not for you. Different Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, SUSE, etc) each have their own packages and package formats. It is generally a bad idea to try to install a package meant for one distribution onto another. You can’t just mix and match like you can (to some extent) in Windows.
Please refer to the official website and help forums for your specific Linux distribution for how to install the software you need.