.deb packaging, italc and systemimager

[Simon Ruiz]

Hello, all!
 
I actually just blogged about this at: http://indianalinux.blogspot.com/2007/01/packages-italc-and-systemimager.html
 
To paraphrase:
 
There are a couple of software packages I need to use whose most recent version are not available in .deb format. Namely: iTALC and SystemImager. I know these packages would also be useful to anyone else in my particular position; that is, running Ubuntu in an educational setting without using LTSP. The problem is that the version of these programs in the official repository is very old and useless.
 
I understand that using alien to convert the rpms to debs is not a great solution, and so I've thought it might be worth learning to package the source into .debs myself. But, I've been directed to and looked at http://www.debian.org/devel/ and it's way beyond me.
 
So, I'm here asking for help.
 
I'm hoping someone reading this would be willing to give a man a fish (i.e. package the latest version of these programs as .debs and make them available) or teach a man to fish (i.e. help me figure out how to package them myself, though I have little experience, and I'll make them available). 
Hope this finds you all having a great day!
 
Simón