Deb Installer for Dapper.

[matt nicholson]

I think this is a great idea/job on your part. i have for a bit now, 
been wondering when ubuntu might step up to the plate and make .debs 
(and maybe even .rpms with alien, but thats a whole other story) 
installable fomr teh command line.

i recently got my good freind/roomate to dual boot with ubuntu 5.04. he 
is not a "power user" by any means, but, once getting used to it, likes 
it much much better thatn windows, mainly, for the software 
repositories. but recently there was a package he wanted that wasn't in 
universe/multiverse, but, he found a .deb of it. but, he had to have me 
install it via command line (a la sudo dpkg -i package.deb) for him. it 
was teh onyl real complaint he's had. why couldn't he just double click 
on it? seems simple enough.

so, yes i think this is a great idea. redhat/fedora, if i remember 
correctly (last used it about 2 years ago)had a nice, simple gui that 
would pop up when you double clicked on an rpm (no dependancy handling, 
of course) so, i think this would be a great feature to add for teh next 
release.

Josué Alcalde González wrote:

>Now, Breezy is out, it is time for ideas for dapper. I would like to
>have a talk about .deb installer.
>
>I think using dpkg is not good because:
>- You must use the console
>- It could install broken packages.
>Gdeb solves first problem, but it uses dpkg. I decided to rewrite it
>whit a similar interface to Synaptic. I am a student and I only had
>developed Java applications and some C code, but I have been able to
>do an alpha using C++ and glade, checking Synaptic code, gdeb code and libapt. I use a lot of
>Synaptic code and it looks similar.
>http://developer.berlios.de/dbimage.php?id=2164
>
>This would be useful, but the problem is how to install local deb
>packages. There have been a lot of threads about this in the forum and
>even in the wiki. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PackageManagement
>
>The problem is libapt doesn't support local packages installation, so
>Synaptic can't implement it easy.
>Debins uses a trick to make the job, a local repository. It could be a
>solution, but I think it is not very good solution to have a local
>repository. It could grow too much.
>So, I have been thinking and searching and I think, perhaps I have found
>a solution.
>
>DebViewer:
>01. When you click a /file/to/install/name.deb DebViewer is started.
>02. User checks package description (and other details if he wants).
>03. If he decided to install it, it is warn: "THIS SOFTWARE IS NOT
>SUPPORTED, BLA, BLA, BLA... "
>04. If he is brave enough, he will click yes and DebViewer will call
>"gksudo DebInstaller /file/to/install/name.deb"
>
>DebInstaller:
>01. Locks apt database
>02. DebInstaller gets info from control file and build a new file like this:
>
>Package: name
>Version: 0.0-0
>Priority: optional
>Section: thesection
>Maintainer: me <me at me.me>
>Depends: libinstall1.0-0 (>= 1.9.0)
>Architecture: i386
>Filename: name.deb
>Size: 100
>Installed-Size: 150
>MD5sum: 44f9abee24f7fc2d32adfe003bbde14d
>Description: Dock any program into system tray
> With AllTray you can dock any application with no native tray icon
> into the system tray. A high-light feature is that a click on the
>"close" button
> will minimize back to system tray. It works well with Gnome, KDE, XFCE 4*,
> Fluxbox* and WindowMaker*
> *no drag 'n drop support.
>
>It must calc MD5sum (I don't know about what) and size. Other things are
>taken from control
>This file will be saved as"/var/lib/apt/lists/_file_to_install_Packages"
>2. Add to "/etc/apt/sources.list":  "deb file:///file/to/install/ /"
>3. Unlock apt-database
>4. Now, we can install the package using apt, aptitude or synaptic! Not
>need to do an "apt-get update".
>    We could use synaptic using something like this (you should correct me):
>      "/usr/sbin/synaptic --hide-main-window --non-interactive --set-selections name"
>    It will install the package and:
>    - if a newer version is available in repositories, it will use it.
>    - if dependencies aren't solved, the package isn't installed.
>    Synaptic will do the job and end.
>5. Lock apt-database.
>6. Delete from /etc/apt/sources.list "deb file:///file/to/install/ /"
>7.Delete file "/var/lib/apt/lists/_file_to_install_Packages"
>8. Unlock apt-database and that's all.
>
>It works. I have installed opera to try this way to install deb
>packages. It is complex, but easy to do. No need to make any changes in
>apt or synaptic. No need to make a local repository. No need to copy the
>file to another place. If you want to uninstall the package,
>Synaptic->Installed (local or obsolet)
>
>Some posible problems if something fails:
>1. "_file_to_install_Packages" is created but line in sources.list is
>not added. (
>   No errors are generated by apt and the file will be deleted when
>"apt-get update"
>2. "sources.list" line is not deleted. There will be an error and user
>should delete this from sources.list (or using
>gnome-software-properties). Perhaps, we could add someting like
>"#$$DELETE$ME$$" to the line, and we could delete it automatically when
>gnome-software-properties starts, or when an "apt-get update" is done.
>3. Sometimes you need to install more than one package at once... it
>could be easy done for DebInstaller, but how should the gui to do these?
>
>Well. What do you think about this?
>
>
>		
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