Using RPM in Gentoo

daos · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2002 Posts: 50 Location: Virginia, USA

I find out that we can use RPM to install the popular *.rpm binary files from other distributions.
Do:
emerge -b rpm
will download and compile the RPM software for you.
However, I notice that the version I got from "emerge --pretend rpm" is 4.04, but the real version of rpm after installation is 4.03 (rpm --version).
There is also an useful utility to convert an RPM binary package to .tar.gz file if you don't want to install RPM:
emerge -b rpm2targz
will install this utility for you.
Run this command: rpm2targz your-rpm-file.rpm
will convert the rpm file to tar.gz format. Copy it to / and untar there.

Jeevz · Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2002 6:55 pm Post subject:

At first I thought... why use RPM when you have Portage? Then I remembered Open Office :wink:

daos · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2002 Posts: 50 Location: Virginia, USA

There are some RPM packages that are not in GENTOO portage yet, you may try the binary RPM from other distributions. Some package such as mozilla take a long time to download and compile (30MB source code), you may want to try the binary from other distributions.

AlterEgo · Veteran Joined: 25 Apr 2002 Posts: 1619

KDE contains KPackage, which also works nicely for managing RPM's

rommel · Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2002 8:45 pm Post subject:

ypu can use alien to rebuild an rpm to a tar.gz or rpm2targz is another utility...i used alien to convert the crystral icon rpm to tar

Stalione · Guru Joined: 21 Apr 2002 Posts: 335

there is also a tool called alien for debian that does this for you....i have never used it..but maybe that can be used as an alternate option. Anyone use alien?? is it any good?

febisfebi · Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2002 5:29 am Post subject:

i used alien a few times in slackware, it works. we really need some sort of tool, like alien that makes gentoo .tbz2 packages out of rpms. also i think it would be good to have some precompiled tbz2 packages for things like kde and openoffice that take a long time to compile, and that some people would rather use binarys for.

mvo · Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2002 7:17 am Post subject:

I use the sources, checkinstall and slackware pkgtools for apps that are not in Portage. Works fine and so I don't miss the old Slackware feeling

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