Is deb2targz safe to use?

[mpeter]

I have recently installed Sabayon 4.1 Gnome and after a few initial hiccups, I am getting to know the new distribution and am liking it very much.

I am mainly using Ubuntu, which was my introduction to Linux a few months ago and I am used to the convenience of apt-get which was one of Ubuntu's featutes that was keeping me with Ubuntu. I have been getting acquainted with Entropy and especially equo install, which I find extremely useful.

I ran into difficulties with some packages, which would not work properly after installing with Entropy. eg. Alltray would not work because gconf schemas were disabled and I could not find a way to enable them. Bluez would not work, giving a segmentation fault, the solution of which was also beyond me.
Some packages, eg. pdfedit are not available from the Sabayon repository and I still have to learn and understand how to use portage and find ebuilds.

I found the small utility deb2targz to install .deb packages on Gentoo based systems.
I copy the deb to my Desktop and do:

Code: Select all

$ cd Desktop
$ deb2targz <name of .deb>
$ su
$ password
# mv <name of generated .tar.gz> /
# cd /
# tar xvzf <name of generated .tar.gz>
# rm -fr <name of generated .tar.gz>

After installing the alltray.deb package this way, alltray started working, as did bluez. Pdfedit was even reflected in the main menu.

However, I am now concerned whether this method of installing software has any detrimental effects on the Sabayon system, bearing in mind that the packages are not being compiled from source, essentially having been created for Debian based systems.

I have also noticed a substantial difference in package sizes. For example the virtualbox-bin package is more than 160Mb from the Sabayon repo, while the Virtualbox .deb package from the Sun website is only about 35 Mb.

Any guidance here would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to mess up my new Sabayon system.

Thanks,
mpeter

[WarraWarra]

You are more than welcome to do it this way but we can only help to some extend with suggestions to fixes as this could end up breaking a lot of things using deb packages.

Best is to look at the wiki top right of this page or any of the many links listed in the beginners area to get to know gentoo's portage / emerge or equo / entropy / spritz.

Gentoo or portage has been made faster with "git" instead of the normal long emerge --sync but that is another subject.

If you need some packages they should be listed in http://gentoo-portage.com/
Spritz can install the downloadable source .bz2 for you , have not tried it so someone else would have to post how for you.

Have you tried to search for " pdf " in spritz after you updated it ? or any other similar wording for what you need ?

[kodiakmax]

IMO. If you want to use deb packages use a deb based system. Otherwise what's the point of using a source-based distro. You should always use whatever package manager comes with the distro you use. Otherwise you'll just be asking for problems down the road. As other software gets updated you forget about manual installs and breakage starts happening. Only if Entropy or Portage doesn't have the software you are looking for should you manually install it. Then you should install from the source files. You will eventually have problems using another disto's binary files. As that distro is going to be configured differently.

[Fitzcarraldo]

^I agree entirely.

mpeter, if you can't find the package you want in the binary Entropy repositories -- or it has been built using options you don't want, or built without options you do want -- then the next stop should really be Portage. The SL Wiki and the Gentoo Handbook have a wealth of information on Portage, and you just need to spend some time familiarising yourself with Portage. The Gentoo Bugzilla is chock full of ebuilds if you can't find what you want in the main Portage tree or the many Portage overlays, and you can learn how to 'roll your own' ebuilds from threads in the SL Forums and the SL Wiki. It may be a bit daunting at first, but once you get the hang of Portage you'll find it's not that difficult (and is powerful, with a very large number of packages). Learning a new package manager, especially for a source-based distribution such as SL/Gentoo (putting Entropy aside, for the moment) is bound to require a bit of work, but well worth it. I came to SL/Gentoo from Ubuntu a couple of years ago, and I can honestly say I prefer Portage to APT (and find it no more difficult).

[mpeter]

Thank you for your comments.
During the short time I have had Sabayon installed, I find I have been booting into Ubuntu less and less. You are quite correct, I have found portage somewhat complicated and therefore daunting and just needed that little push to decide to make the move from Ubuntu to Sabayon.

I think I will do a fresh install of Sabayon - get rid of all the mistakes I have made (and the Debian files!) - and take my time building a new system and learn while I go. The complicatedness aside, I am still completely delighted at the power of Sabayon compared to the others distros I have tried [Ubuntu and its derivatives and Mandriva & openSuse] and would like to do things 'right'.

Thanks again,
mpeter