Re: How difficult is it to package Binary-only software as .deb?
On Tue, May 21, 2002 at 12:21:45AM +0100, John Gay wrote:
> Create a .deb that;
>
> 1) Will compile and install the kernel module, insuring that the
> module loads at boot time.
>
> 2) Conflict with and remove ALL other versions of OpenGL/MESA/XFree86 etc.
>
> 3) Install the X Server binaries, and
>
> 4) Put X on permanent hold until the user specifically requests to
> replace it.
>
> I realise this goes against the very grain of Debian GNU/Linux, but
> some of us need to use Proprietory X Servers to get full use of our
> graphics cards. I've asked XIG to re-consider supporting Debian, but
> they see Debian as a small target not yet worth supporting. I was
> hoping that by 'rolling my own .deb' I could provide them with a valid
> template they could use for converting their other X Servers to Debian
> format.
>
> How difficult would this be for someone with only limited knowledge of
> Linux and X and even less knowledge of .deb formats? I've read the
> developers mini howto, but it assumes you are starting with GPL'd
> code.
Well, strictly speaking it mostly assumes that you're building from
source, although naturally free software's encouraged. If this isn't the
case, though, it actually becomes simpler to create the package. Just
delete all the stuff about compiling, and replace 'make install' or
equivalent with some shell commands that install the binaries you have
into a temporary tree (usually debian/tmp or debian/<package>, depending
on how the rules file is constructed).
I'm not particularly familiar with how XFree86 is packaged, though.
> I'm esspecially concerned with getting the conflicts right so that
> this package can cleanly remove XFree86 and install the XIG server and
> ensuring that future dist-upgrades will not replace the XIG server
> with newer XFree86 .deb's.
The X server packages are in a separate binary package from the rest of
XFree86, and you should just be able to create a package that Provides:
xserver, installs its X server binary somewhere, and takes over the
/etc/X11/X symlink.
HTH,
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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