[lug] newbie to alien needs help

[Ralf Mattes]

On Wed, 8 Mar 2000, McIllece, Matthew W wrote:

> Has anybody installed the 3Dfx device driver in a Debian-based Linux
> distribution?
> 
> When I do an "alien -i Device3Dfx-2.3-4.src.rpm" I get messages such as,
> 
> "no utmp entry available and LOGNAME not defined; using uid of process (0)
> at /usr/lib/dpkg/controllib.pl line 53."

alien tries to find your username to log it. It can't get it from utmp
nor from the enviroment variable LOGNAME and therefore uses the uid of the
process itself (you seem to run it as user 'root'). This shouldn't be a
problem.

> "dpkg-gencontrol: warning: unknown substitution variable ${shlibs:Depends}"

While converting the rpm->deb the program dpkg-gencontrol (which is called
by alien to do the dirty work) builds a control file (the file that carries
all the information about debian packages). It obvioulsly can't get information
about the shared libraries the packege depends on--still no problem.

> "dpkg: error processing device3dfx_2.3-5_i386.deb (--install): trying to
> overwrite `/3dfx.gif', which is also in package glide-v2"

Ah: the newly generated package tries to install a file (3dfx.gif) that
is also included in an already installed debian packet (glide-v2). This 
is the problem.

> "Errors were encountered while processing: device3dfx_2.3-5_i386.deb"
> 
> "alien: Error running: dpkg --no-force-overwrite -i
> device3dfx_2.3-5_i386.deb"

Alien is very defensive with installation options. If the file 'device3dfx_2.3-5_i386.deb'
is still in your directory just try the following:
dpkg -i -force-overwrite device3dfx_2.3-5_i386.deb
This should install the package.


> I also tried an "rpm --rebuild Device3Dfx-2.3-4.src.rpm", but that resulted
> in,
> 
> "Expect kernel source at location /usr/src/linux
> Sym.link /usr/src/linux -> where you have your sources
> make: *** [sanity] Error 255
> Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.91751 (%build)"
> 
> I'm currently using Corel Linux and I can't find anything but header files
> in any directory named "linux".  Anybody have an idea as to how to get this
> driver installed on my non Red Hat distribution?

Yep, they don't install the kernel sources (shame on them!).

 Ralf

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|                                     |                             |==
| Ralf Mattes                         | rm at schauinsland.com         |==
| Programming, Administration         | rm at ns.aura.de               |==
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