Re: changing roots on: dpkg -i
Rob Benton <rob.benton@conwaycorp.net> writes:
> I'm trying to install the xfree86 packages with the /opt directory as
> root. I've tried using --instdir but the install fails on the
> pre/postinst scripts. Is there an easy way to do this without having to
> build my own package?
No. In general, dpkg's options to "change the root" are useful if you
have a chroot environment, or if you somehow otherwise have a complete
working system installed somewhere other than / (e.g., you're booted
off of a rescue CD and your hard disk is mounted on /target or
something). The best you could do with this approach is install X
stuff in /opt/usr/X11R6/..., and even that wouldn't work because the X
server will do things like look for its configuration file in /etc/X11
(and has, in the Debian build, never heard of /opt).
As far as X goes, IMHO the easiest way to get an XFree86 4.3 X server
(because that's what you're really after, right?) is to download the
Xxserv.tgz and Xmod.tgz binary tarballs from xfree86.org, unpack them
somewhere like /usr/local, and repoint the /etc/X11/X symlink to point
to them. There are also various backports, plus the ~official Debian
experimental packages; search the list archives for details. Debian
in general "doesn't believe in /opt", and relocatable binaries are a
hard problem that's not real high on the dpkg feature list.
--
David Maze dmaze@debian.org http://people.debian.org/~dmaze/
"Theoretical politics is interesting. Politicking should be illegal."
-- Abra Mitchell
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