I am trying to use alien --scripts to make a .noarch.rpm file into a .deb file, however, it is not working. I am trying to install Oracle SQL Developer: I have downloaded the sqldeveloper-4.0.3.16.84-1.noarch.rpm package from here . alien --scripts sqldeveloper-4.0.3.16.84-1.noarch.rpm at this point I would expect the file the file sqldeveloper_4.0.3.16.84-2_all.deb to be created so I could call the following command to install it: dpkg -i sqldeveloper_4.0.3.16.84-2_all.deb However this is not the case. When I call alien --scripts sqldeveloper-4.0.3.16.84-1.noarch.rpm I get a folder with the name sqldeveloper-4.0.3.16.84. After looking in the folder, I have found that there is a large proportion of the program missing, the folder which contains all of the executable scripts to set up and run SQL Developer. I am using a `Debian Linux sever, release 6.0.10. Is there a way for me to make it create the .deb file when I call the alien --scripts command?

I find myself unable to convert a .deb package to .rpm to install it on fedora. I am not able to download the equivalent rpm file, so conversion is my only way out. I get this error after using the prompt alien -r package.deb as su. Package build failed. Here's the log of the command (cd shadow-beta-0.8.62; rpmbuild --buildroot='/home/user/shadow/shadow-alpha-artful(1)/shadow-beta-0.8.62' -bb --target x86_64 'shadow-beta-0.8.62-2.spec'): Fehler: Zeile 5: Leerer Tag: Summary: Für folgende Zielplattform(en) wird gebaut: x86_64 Edit: I am unable to follow the suggestions in the answers. How can I edit a file that is not even generated because the conversion failed?

I'm running an Ubuntu 12.04 VM and trying to convert an rpm file to a deb file. When I run sudo alien --to-deb --scripts oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm I get this error

dpkg-deb: error: control directory has bad permissions 777 (must be
> >=0755 and <=0775)

I tried sudo chmod 0755 oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm and sudo chmod -R 0755 on the directory containing the file and still get the error. What is the control directory? **Update** Sorry for not realizing this before I am getting this error before the control directory error. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXm.so.3 has an unexpected SONAME (libXm.so.4) dpkg-shlibdeps: error: no dependency information found for /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXm.so.3 I ran sudo apt-file search libXm.so.3 and it returned libmotif4: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXm.so.3 so I downloaded libmotif4 and still got the error and then downloaded libmotif3 as well and got the error. I ran sudo alien -g my.rpm and that generated oracle-xe-11.2.0 and oracle-xe-11.2.0.orig directories. I ran sudo chmod -R 0755 oracle-xe-11.2.0 and then ran debian/rules binary to generate the errors described above.

I've a problem with my CentOS. When I've tried to install alien (el7 package, because el8 isn't available), I got this error (My CentOS has Polish language) [mlodybukk@localhost Pobrane]$ sudo yum install alien Updating Subscription Management repositories. Unable to read consumer identity This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register. Ostatnio sprawdzono ważność metadanych: 0:01:14 temu w dniu nie, 5 lip 2020, 22:45:38. Błąd: Problem: conflicting requests - nothing provides perl(:MODULE_COMPAT_5.16.3) needed by alien-8.90-3.el7.nux.noarch How can I repair this?

Try to install alien without root. 1. cd /tmp; mkdir alien; cd alien 2. yumdownloader --destdir ./ --resolve alien 3. for rpm in glob.glob("*.rpm"): rpm2cpio rpm | cpio -id 4. cd usr; export PATH=./bin:./sbin:${PATH}; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./lib:./lib64:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH} 5. run ./alien, got below error: Can't locate Alien/Package/Deb.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/local/lib64/perl5 /usr/local/share/perl5 /usr/lib64/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib64/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 .) at ./bin/alien line 295. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./bin/alien line 295. I can find Deb.pm. -> find ./ -name 'Deb.pm' ./usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl/Alien/Package/Deb.pm Not sure how to make it locate Alien/Package/Deb.pm

I've a problem. When I tried to install obs-ndi for my obs-studio using alien . I've got an error (I've obs-studio installed on my PC)

[mlodybukk@localhost Pobrane]$ sudo alien -i obs-ndi_4.9.1-1_amd64.deb 
[sudo] password for mlodybukk: 
	dpkg --no-force-overwrite -i obs-ndi_4.9.1-1_amd64.deb
(Reading database ... 25 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack obs-ndi_4.9.1-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking obs-ndi (4.9.1-1) over (4.9.1-1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of obs-ndi:
 obs-ndi depends on obs-studio (>= 25.0.7); however:
  Package obs-studio is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package obs-ndi (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 obs-ndi
Unable to install at /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl/Alien/Package/Deb.pm line 92.
[mlodybukk@localhost Pobrane]$

I am trying to convert .rpm to .deb using alien command: sudo alien .rpm But it's just create a directory that has the same name but never get .deb to install it There is no errors while converting it How could I get .deb?

I'm aiming to translate a Debian package to an RPM package to install it on a CentOS Linux 7 (Red Hat). I used alien to accomplish it: alien --to-rpm --scripts --keep-version --generate debian_pkg.deb. I use the --generate flag to create a directory for building a package from, because I want to add the runtime dependencies to the spec file. To do so, I add this line: Requires: nodejs tomcat8 java-1.8.0-openjdk java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel. Then I try to create the package: rpmbuild -ba .spec, but it ends abruptly with this error:

Processing files: 
error: Directory not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//srv
error: Directory not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//srv/tmp
error: File not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//srv/tmp/file.tar.gz
error: File not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//usr/share/doc/frontend/README.Debian
error: File not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//usr/share/doc/frontend/changelog.Debian.gz
error: File not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//usr/share/doc/frontend/copyright


RPM build errors:
    Directory not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//srv
    Directory not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//srv/tmp
    File not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//srv/tmp/file.tar.gz
    File not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//usr/share/doc/frontend/README.Debian
    File not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//usr/share/doc/frontend/changelog.Debian.gz
    File not found: /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT//usr/share/doc/frontend/copyright

I searched the internet and found that it's linked to the %install section and more specifically %{buildroot}, but I can't get my head around the problem and fix it. Can somebody give me a hand? Thanks! **UPDATE** Here is the spec file in essence:

Buildroot: /home/
Version: 1.0
Release: 849
Distribution: Debian
Group: Converted/misc
Requires: nodejs tomcat8 java-1.8.0-openjdk java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel

%define _rpmdir ../
%define _rpmfilename %%{NAME}-%%{VERSION}-%%{RELEASE}.%%{ARCH}.rpm
%define _unpackaged_files_terminate_build 0

%pre
# some shell script

%post
# some shell script

%install
mkdir -p %{buildroot}/usr/share/doc/
mkdir -p %{buildroot}/usr/share/doc/frontend/

%files
%dir "/srv/"
%dir "/srv/tmp/"
"/srv/tmp/file.tar.gz"
%dir "/usr/"
%dir "/usr/share/"
%dir "/usr/share/doc/"
%dir "/usr/share/doc/frontend/"
"/usr/share/doc/frontend/README.Debian"
"/usr/share/doc/frontend/changelog.Debian.gz"
"/usr/share/doc/frontend/copyright"

Are there any reasons to use alien to install an rpm-package on Debian, or could I just as well just install the package with rpm?

I am trying to install cetoys . The main Source Forge page provides a .src.rpm file. I downloaded it and ran: sudo alien -i cetoys-0-r4.src.rpm It produced the following output: (Reading database ... 209118 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack cetoys_0-1_amd64.deb ... Unpacking cetoys (0-1) over (0-1) ... Setting up cetoys (0-1) ... I thought maybe it was installed so I tried running rapi help. Which just informed me rapi command not found. I have never used alien before, and I don't really know what I am doing. Where would it have installed cetoys?

### Context: I'm trying to convert a .deb package to .rpm using [alien](http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/gutsy/man1/alien.1p.html) , I use this command: $ alien -r foo.deb but it complains thusly: > Warning: alien is not running as root! > Warning: Ownerships of files in the generated packages will probably be wrong. I think all alien needs root for is to guarantee that it has permission to create foo.deb's root-owned files for the foo.rpm output, but I'm not sure. ### Questions: 1. Do packages always need some root-owned files? 2. Why do they need root-owned files at all? 3. If I'm wrong, why does alien need root?

Is it feasible to build an RPM package and then utilize alien to create the DEB package rather than investing time in building a DEB package? Or do certain pieces not translate well?