postgresql 6.5.3 vs. debian

[w trillich <will@pinncomp.net>]

aaugh!

i'm having my fourth day of troubles trying to upgrade
my 6.3 pgsql (came on the debian cd) to 6.5.3, and i'm hoping
someone might have the insight i need to get over this hurdle...

these are the postgres files i'd love to install:
        postgresql-6.5.3-3.i386.rpm
or
        postgresql-devel-6.5.3-3.i386.rpm
        postgresql-perl-6.5.3-3.i386.rpm
        postgresql-server-6.5.3-3.i386.rpm
        postgresql-test-6.5.3-3.i386.rpm
onto
Linux 2.0.36 #2 Sun Feb 21 15:55:27 EST 1999 i586 unknown

here's the group of error messages i run into when merely
CONVERTING (via 'alien') the *.rpm's to *.deb's:

dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: unknown output from ldd on
`debian/tmp/usr/bin/pg_dump': `     libreadline.so.3 => not found'
dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: unknown output from ldd on
`debian/tmp/usr/bin/pg_dump': `     libhistory.so.3 => not found'
dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: unknown output from ldd on `debian/tmp/usr/bin/pg_id':
`       libreadline.so.3 => not found'
dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: unknown output from ldd on `debian/tmp/usr/bin/pg_id':
`       libhistory.so.3 => not found'
dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: unknown output from ldd on
`debian/tmp/usr/bin/psql': `libreadline.so.3 => not found'
dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: unknown output from ldd on
`debian/tmp/usr/bin/psql': `libhistory.so.3 => not found'
dpkg: /lib/libtermcap.so.2 not found.

so i hopped on the web and searched for *.rpm's that would take care
of filling in the missing holes:

libtermcap-2.0.8-20.i386.rpm
-- contains
                /lib/libtermcap.so.2.0.8
        (to which i linked the sought-after libtermcap.2.0 via
        'ln -s libtermcap.so.2.0.8 libtermcap.so.2.0' thinking that 
        internal tweaks wouln't break the interface)
readline-2.2.1-6.i386.rpm
--  contains 
                /usr/lib/libhistory.so.3.0
                /usr/lib/libreadline.so.3.0
        (which i linked to the sought-after filenames in similar fashion
        to the method i used for libtermcap)

but doing so seems to not helped one iota, even after going into
'dselect' and choosing to update package info from the mounted directory
where the *deb packages reside.

nearly giving up, i tried using the RPM installer instead:

# rpm -i libtermcap-2.0.8-20.i386.rpm
failed dependencies:
        /etc/termcap is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        /sbin/ldconfig   is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        /bin/sh   is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        ld-linux.so.2 is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        libc.so.6 is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0) is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1) is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
# rpm -i libtermcap-2.0.8-20.i386.rpm 
failed dependencies:
        /etc/termcap is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        /sbin/ldconfig   is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        /bin/sh   is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        ld-linux.so.2 is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        libc.so.6 is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0) is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20
        libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1) is needed by libtermcap-2.0.8-20

i'd appreciate any direction... thanks (i've still got some hair
left, and would like to keep it).

[accidentally posted this to debian-devel this morning. whoops.]

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