Install .rpm Files in Ubuntu

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Some time you might find some applications are having only .rpm files but you want a .deb package for your debian,Ubuntu and other debian derived ditributions.If you can't find .deb debian package in any of the debian,ubuntu repositories or elsewhere, you can use the alien package converter to install the .rpm file.

Alien is a program that converts between the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and slackware tgz file formats. If you want to use a package from another distribution than the one you have installed on your system, you can use alien to convert it to your preferred package format and install it.

Despite the large version number, alien is still (and will probably always be) rather experimental software. It has been used by many people for many years, but there are still many bugs and limitations.

Alien should not be used to replace important system packages, like sysvinit, shared libraries, or other things that are essential for the functioning of your system. Many of these packages are set up differently by Debian and Red Hat, and packages from the different distributions cannot be used interchangably. In general, if you can't uninstall the package without breaking your system, don't try to replace it with an alien version.

Install alien in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install alien

This will install all the required packages.Now you can start converting your .rpm files to .deb packages.

Available Options for alien

Convert the package.rpm into a package.deb

sudo alien -d package-name.rpm

Convert the package.rpm into a package.deb, and install the generated package.

sudo alien -i package-name.rpm

If you want to keeps alien from changing the version number use the following command

sudo alien -k rpm-package-file.rpm

Example

Suppose we have a avg antivirus avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.rpm file

To convert .rpm to debian

sudo alien -k avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.rpm

Now you should be having avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.deb file

To install .deb file

sudo dpkg -i avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.deb

If you don't use -k option you should see avg71lms_r30-1_i386.deb file the difference is it will add 1

If you want more available options for alien check alien man page

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7 Responses

  1. Eduardo Rojas says:

    When I type and enter sudo apt-get install alien:

    this is what I get:

    E: Type ‘“deb’ is not known on line 34 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list
    E: The list of sources could not be read.

    Please tell what to do

    Thanks in advance

  2. vibin says:

    Plz change ur /etc/apt/sources.list …
    If ur in LAN or doing in home it need to change accordingly
    This file contains the proxy server which u r downloading packages
    Make sure to correct this file in root mode

    If u have any further doubt

    Goto Synaptic Manger>Settings: Repository ..>Third Party S/w tab>Add >Type the according to the example given there (ur appropriate proxy ip)

  3. Dwite Check says:

    I used the gDebi Package Installer after using the sudo alien -d package-name.rpm command to install

  4. SNEHAL says:

    thanks a lot… it really helped me a lot…

  5. Krishna reddy says:

    administrator@ubuntu:~$ sudo dpkg -i RealPlayer11GOLD.deb
    Selecting previously deselected package realplay.
    (Reading database … 137597 files and directories currently installed.)
    Unpacking realplay (from RealPlayer11GOLD.deb) …
    dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of realplay:
    realplay depends on libasound2 (>> 1.0.22); however:
    Version of libasound2 on system is 1.0.20-3ubuntu6.
    realplay depends on libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.29.3); however:
    Version of libatk1.0-0 on system is 1.28.0-0ubuntu1.
    realplay depends on libfontconfig1 (>= 2.8.0); however:
    Version of libfontconfig1 on system is 2.6.0-1ubuntu12.
    dpkg: error processing realplay (–install):
    dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
    Errors were encountered while processing:
    realplay
    administrator@ubuntu:~$

    this problem will getting
    plz send replay to [email protected]

  6. James says:

    I’ve not seen any mention of anyone running into this problem: After running “fakeroot alien -d blahblah.rpm”, I get a “blahblah.deb generated” (success) message, but there is no resulting .deb file present afterward. The source rpm is in the cwd, and I am not specifying any path info anywhere else. Is this a common usage issue that anyone is aware of?

  7. martin says:

    Hi there cannot down load flash player

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