Need libgphoto2-2.1.5, how do I replace the installed older package in the best way?

[Patrik Dahl]

Hi,

Since it is my first post I first would like to thank the Ubuntu 
Community! You are doing GREAT work and I'm looking forward to "Hoary". 
I have been using Suse/KDE earlier on (still am) and Ubuntu is the 2nd 
Linux distribution I'm been using and I really like it!!! Infact I'm 
doing all the Desktops stuff (web,email, Cedega, Coo etc..) on it 
nowadays. It has taken some time to get friendly with Gnome but I like 
it better and better, still like KDE also.

Well to the reason for my email!

I need to upgrade libgphoto2 packages in Warty (2.1.4-6) to the latest 
version 2.1.5 in order to get support for my girlfriends new Canon 
PowerShot SD20 Digital Camera (US name of the Canon Ixus I5 as it is 
called in Sweden and the rest of Europe I guess?).

My thought was first to remove libgphoto2 and libgphoto2-port0 packages 
and compile libgphoto2 2.1.5 from source but I can not remove those 
packages without removing a hole lot of packages and I guess I atleast 
want to keep ubuntu-desktop!

Synaptic want me to remove:
gphoto2
gthumb
gtkam
gtkan-gimp
libgphoto2-port0
libsane
python-image-sane
python2.3-imaging-sane
ubuntu-desktop
xsane

I read the recent "Re: Recommended way to deal with locally-compiled 
apps" thread and well... I'm still not sure what  "best Practice" I 
should use.

I'm either thinking of using "checkinstall" to create and install the 
.deb-files from source.
I have also downloaded libgphoto2 sources/diff from Debian unstable 
(http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libgphoto2-2) and compiled 
them this way:

I Installed all missing progs/dependencies to build Debian packages with 
Synaptic.
spda at miura:~/inst/debian $ patch -p0 <libgphoto2_2.1.5-2.diff
spda at miura:~/inst/debian/libgphoto2-2.1.5 $ chmod +x debian/rules (got 
some error from fakeroot which required this fix!)
spda at miura:~/inst/debian/libgphoto2-2.1.5 $ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

I have never dealt with .deb files before but dpkg-buildpackage compiled 
without error and created the packages as intended. I have not installed 
them since I have read several times that installing Debian packages is 
not recommended (how about when you compile them from source?) and I 
don't know if there is anything else I should do when creating the .deb 
files?

Do I dare to install the .deb files I have created or should I approch 
this problem from a different way?

Best Regards
Patrik