Want to install new version of Sylpheed on Etch [resolved]

[powertron]

What is the best way to do this?

I am running Etch, but have a few packages that I installed from testing (mixed system). I was not willing to go this route with sylpheed due to the number of core packages that would be upgraded.

My next plan was to download the source for sylpheed, do a ./configure, make, and checkinstall and then install the deb. But...there is no checkinstall available in Etch!?!

I want to be able to remove / upgrade this package in the future, and I don't want to use untrusted repositories (eg backports.org), so whats my best option?

Andrew

PS My jaw hit the floor when checkinstall was not available in Etch.

[izar]

Installing checkinstall from sarge may also work on Etch. Just use dpkg for the install.
sylpheed is included in the official Etch repositories, so it should install using apt-get or aptitude. This would be a far better choice than pulling packages from Testing as this last choice will have installed a bunch of basic libraries like libc6, which will most likely ruin our system.
Perhaps a dist-upgrade to testing is another option.

[powertron]

Installing checkinstall from sarge may also work on Etch. Just use dpkg for the install.
sylpheed is included in the official Etch repositories, so it should install using apt-get or aptitude. This would be a far better choice than pulling packages from Testing as this last choice will have installed a bunch of basic libraries like libc6, which will most likely ruin our system.
Perhaps a dist-upgrade to testing is another option.

I'd like to stay on etch, so I'm not really considering a dist-upgrade

I have sylpheed from the official repositories, but it has a few bugs and after inquiring on the sylpheed-dev mailing list, I want to upgrade to a newer version.

I guess my question is this: what is the best way for me to get checkinstall?

[izar]

As I said in my previous post you can install the sarge version of checkinstall and it should work (it does for me, at least). Download it from here , now change to the folder where you have checkinstall and then install it with this command:

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dpkg -i checkinstall_1.5.3-3_all.deb

I hope this helps.

[powertron]

Thanks for the help, I was able to get checkinstall installed.

When I tried building sylpheed, I found out it requires GLIB - version >= 2.4.0

Oh well, I guess some things were not meant to be.

[EMD]

PS My jaw hit the floor when checkinstall was not available in Etch.

You may want to look into dh-make. For tips on how to use it, see my PDF Edit HowTo. For more general information, see: How to install when there's no DEB available?

[powertron]

PS My jaw hit the floor when checkinstall was not available in Etch.

You may want to look into dh-make. For tips on how to use it, see my PDF Edit HowTo. For more general information, see: How to install when there's no DEB available?

Ok, cool. I figured there had to be another way.

I ran into a few problems though. When it compiles I get an error and it does not create the deb. This is the error at the very end of compiling.

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make[1]: *** No rule to make target `distclean'.  Stop.
make: [clean] Error 2 (ignored)
 dpkg-source -b sylpheed-2.4.8
 debian/rules build
config.status: WARNING:  Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  ac/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  libsylph/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  src/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  src/icons/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  po/Makefile.in.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  faq/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  faq/de/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  faq/en/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  faq/es/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  faq/fr/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  faq/it/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  manual/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  manual/en/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: WARNING:  manual/ja/Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
smtp.c:301: warning: 'smtp_starttls' defined but not used
lex.yy.c:1233: warning: 'yyunput' defined but not used
 sudo debian/rules binary
cp: cannot stat `faq:': No such file or directory
dh_installdocs: command returned error code 256
make: *** [binary-arch] Error 1

The commands I ran were

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$ tar -xjf sylpheed-2.4.8.tar.bz2
$ cd sylpheed-2.4.8/
$ dh_make --createorig -s -e ****@*****.com -c gpl
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rsudo

What am I doing wrong, and where would it put the deb when it is done?

[EMD]

The commands I ran were

Code: Select all

$ tar -xjf sylpheed-2.4.8.tar.bz2

Looks like you're using Sylpheed's own source. You would probably have more success if you used Debianized source.

Go to Debian packages' Sylpheed page and you'll notice that Lenny and Sid have version 2.5.0 betas 1, 2 and 3. Pick one.

Let's suppose you want the latest and greatest: 2.5.0 beta 3. Then go to Sid's Sylpheed page. On the right-hand side, in the light blue "Links for Sylpheed" column, beneath the words "Download Source Package sylpheed," you'll see links to three files:

• sylpheed_2.5.0~beta3-1.dsc
• sylpheed_2.5.0~beta3.orig.tar.gz
• sylpheed_2.5.0~beta3-1.diff.gz

Download those files and use them to build the sylpheed and sylpheed-i18n packages with dh_make.

And let us know how it goes!

Happy Building!
.

[Lou]

Go to the checkinstall site and d/l the .deb, and install it using dpkg -i, and presto! you got checkinstall, that's what i did.

http://www.asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/

I wanted to install ion3 latest version from sid, i changed the sources.list to sid, apt-get update, and:

$ sudo apt-get -t unstable install ion3

changed the sources.list back to etch, did an apt-get update/dist-upgrade and back to normal.

[EMD]

@ Lou -- Since you appear to recommend checkinstall I'd be curious to get your opinion on my How to install when there's no DEB available? thread. Issyer, Telemachus and Plugwash provided some great insight and I'd love to get some more insight from more gurus like you.

You're also one of the few people on Debian Forums to recommend that users run a mixed Etch/Sid system. By contrast, users of some Debian-based distributions do it quite frequently and I used to do it myself without any problems.

I stopped recommending that users run a mixed system after I read a post by Telemachus:

Just to clarify my previous post: libc6 is a system requirement, so it's not that having libc6 is bad. Here's its description from "aptitude show libc6"

Description: GNU C Library: Shared libraries
Contains the standard libraries that are used by nearly all programs on the
system. This package includes shared versions of the standard C library and the
standard math library, as well as many others.

The thing is that when a part of your system as basic as libc6 gets moved up to the Sid/Unstable level then it can tend to drag other parts with it. And if your gcc gets moved up, for example, then you can have trouble with modules since the kernel will want modules built with the same gcc that built the kernel. People often think, "I will just upgrade this one program to Sid and then keep everything else in Etch," but for this sort of reason it can cause problems. (Problems are not inevitable but they can happen.)

I'd be curious for your thoughts on the safety of running a mixed system.
.

[Lou]

OK, i'll post in that thread.

[Lou]

You're also one of the few people on Debian Forums to recommend that users run a mixed Etch/Sid system. By contrast, users of some Debian-based distributions do it quite frequently and I used to do it myself without any problems.

I stopped recommending that users run a mixed system after I read a post by Telemachus:
.

I think Telemachus is absolutely right. I don't do any pinning per se, i just do this for a couple of apps, take my chances, i'm lazy, upgrading to Lenny has not "bin bery guud to me".

[powertron]

The commands I ran were

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$ tar -xjf sylpheed-2.4.8.tar.bz2

Looks like you're using Sylpheed's own source. You would probably have more success if you used Debianized source.

Go to Debian packages' Sylpheed page and you'll notice that Lenny and Sid have version 2.5.0 betas 1, 2 and 3. Pick one.

Let's suppose you want the latest and greatest: 2.5.0 beta 3. Then go to Sid's Sylpheed page. On the right-hand side, in the light blue "Links for Sylpheed" column, beneath the words "Download Source Package sylpheed," you'll see links to three files:

• sylpheed_2.5.0~beta3-1.dsc
• sylpheed_2.5.0~beta3.orig.tar.gz
• sylpheed_2.5.0~beta3-1.diff.gz

Download those files and use them to build the sylpheed and sylpheed-i18n packages with dh_make.

And let us know how it goes!

Happy Building!
.

I can't install from the official debs for sid/lenny. As I said in my first post, they claim many dependencies and it would have resulted in upgrading a large number of core packages.

I'll build with checkinstall in a minute

Edit: Nope, still errors out when I try to create a deb.

[EMD]

I can't install from the official debs for sid/lenny. As I said in my first post, they claim many dependencies and it would have resulted in upgrading a large number of core packages.

Sorry to hear that. Hang in there. Lenny will go stable in a few months (the goal is Sept.). It will be well worth the wait. Debian Lenny is going to be the best operating system ever created.
.

[plugwash]

That may be the goal but based on past experiance I would add at least a few months to that date.

[powertron]

Ok, so after a bunch of screwing around and not being able to build this into a deb, someone gave me an awesome suggestion.

To preface this: the reason I didn't install the lenny (testing) deb was that apt flagged a large number of core packages to upgrade to testing.

To the OP, there's several other methods, but basically:

You need a build environment to build some package:

$ apt-get install build-essential devscripts fakeroot

You need the source package too (the unstable version can do the job,
you may try other):

$ dget -x http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/ma ... eta3-1.dsc

Now you need the libraries to build the package, look at the
Build-Depends: line in the sylpheed-2.5.0~beta3/debian/control file
and install them:

$ apt-get install libcompfaceg1-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev
libpng12-dev libgpgme11-dev libssl-dev libpisock-dev flex bison
libreadline5-dev cdbs libgtkspell-dev libonig-dev

Now you only need to build the package:

$ cd sylpheed-2.5.0~beta3
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -us -uc

I don't know why I didn't do this before...it's SO simple!

If the testing deb has a bunch of dependencies that you don't really need, download the debian source and compile on your own system.

This would work on any package, provided there is a deb in unstable. The process is:

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apt-get source -t unstable sylpheed
cd sylpheed-2.5.0~beta3/
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -us -uc

And that's it. It is much easier than compiling from original source, especially because there is a file in the debian subdirectory called control and this file lists all the dependencies you need to build! That's half the work right there.

I'm seriously loving debian right now