Installation Doubts by Beginner

[Daniel Ram]

On 06/24/2010 09:04 PM, Steve Grace wrote:
> On 06/24/2010 04:57 PM, Daniel Ram wrote:
>    
>> Hi all!
>>
>> I'm trying to install Java in my computer, but when I try to run "rpm"
>> command, the system ask me to use alien.
>> How can I use alien? I've installed it, but I'm not sure what it is..
>> ;-( .. yet! ... The same for Debian (Is Debian a project, isn't?)
>>
>> P.S.: I have no root password. I put danielram as Administrator, but I'm
>> not sure if it is already running as Administrator.
>> How can I check it? Do I need system restart? Or how can I use sudo like
>> a super user?
>>
>> See below the message after I've tried rpm command (in red):
>>
>> danielram at danielram-laptop:~$ ls
>> CEGO examples.desktop My GCompris TestCego
>> Desktop jre-6u20-linux-i586.rpm Pictures Ubuntu One
>> Documents jre-6u20-linux-i586-rpm.bin Public Videos
>> electric.log Music Templates
>> danielram at danielram-laptop:~$
>>
>> danielram at danielram-laptop:~$ rpm -iv jre-6u20-linux-i586
>> rpm: please use alien to install rpm packages on Debian, if you are
>> really sure use --force-debian switch. See README.Debian for more details.
>> danielram at danielram-laptop:~$
>>      
> Daniel:
>
> "rpm" format is used by Red Hat, I believe. Ubuntu and Debian software
> is packaged into "deb" format. "alien" is used to convert "rpm" to "deb"
> but that probably isn't the right approach in this case.
>
> Rather than try to convert the "rpm" version, I'm pretty sure you can
> get what you want directly from the Ubuntu repositories. However, I
> don't use Java, so someone else will need to tell you what package(s) to
> install.
>
> Steve
>
>    
Hi Steve!
I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, so I need to run alien.
How could I run it?

As you see, I already have the .rpm file. >>

jre-6u20-linux-i586.rpm

And, What means Ubuntu repositories?

Thank you.
Daniel