Re: Package manager & tar.gz apps

["Nikita V. Youshchenko" <yoush@cs.msu.su>]

> Just wondering, what happens to the system when you remove an installed
> package or component of a package and replace/update with a tar.gz
> compiled from source application? Can this break the system -- leading to
> dependancy issues?
>
> I'm asking because I had to install module-init-tools, e2fsprogs and
> procps (requisite for kernel 2.6.0) from source simply because I couldn't
> find the respective deb package or probably the deb package failed on my
> system.

All those packages are available both in Debian unstable and at
backports.org

By installing packages from sources, you broke your system's consistency.
Now the package manager database does not match actual contents of your
system. So expect different failures while trying to use package management
tools.

If you really really need to install software in non-deb format, consider
making a deb package youself. It is not difficult.