Today I tried an incurs in converting deb files into packages rpm for Fedora 28.
As you well know, the alien utility is used to solve this problem.
The Debian package I tried to convert is
the Steam gaming utility.
[mythcat@desk ~]$ su
Password:
[root@desk mythcat]# dnf search alien
Last metadata expiration check: 0:02:59 ago on Mon 22 Oct 2018 08:15:33 PM EEST.
========================= Name Exactly Matched: alien ==========================
alien.noarch : Converter between the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and Slackware tgz
: file formats
[root@desk mythcat]# dnf install alien.noarch
Last metadata expiration check: 0:05:58 ago on Mon 22 Oct 2018 08:15:33 PM EEST.
...
Complete!
[root@desk mythcat]# cd Downloads/
[root@desk Downloads]# alien --scripts -r steam_latest.deb
steam-launcher-1.0.0.56-2.noarch.rpm generated
The next step is the install process:
[root@desk Downloads]# dnf install steam-launcher-1.0.0.56-2.noarch.rpm
Last metadata expiration check: 0:17:36 ago on Mon 22 Oct 2018 08:15:33 PM EEST.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
steam-launcher noarch 1.0.0.56-2 @commandline 2.8 M
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 1 Package
Total size: 2.8 M
Installed size: 2.8 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Error: Transaction check error:
file / from install of steam-launcher-1.0.0.56-2.noarch conflicts with file from package filesystem-3.8-2.fc28.x86_64
file /lib from install of steam-launcher-1.0.0.56-2.noarch conflicts with file from package filesystem-3.8-2.fc28.x86_64
file /usr/bin from install of steam-launcher-1.0.0.56-2.noarch conflicts with file from package filesystem-3.8-2.fc28.x86_64
file /usr/lib from install of steam-launcher-1.0.0.56-2.noarch conflicts with file from package filesystem-3.8-2.fc28.x86_64
Error Summary
-------------
The problem comes from the conversion and I try to see I have the correct packages into my Fedora 28 distro.
[root@desk Downloads]# dnf search filesystem-3.8-2.fc28.x86_64
Last metadata expiration check: 0:19:14 ago on Mon 22 Oct 2018 08:15:33 PM EEST.
No matches found.
[root@desk Downloads]# dnf search filesystem
Last metadata expiration check: 0:20:17 ago on Mon 22 Oct 2018 08:15:33 PM EEST.
======================= Name Exactly Matched: filesystem =======================
filesystem.x86_64 : The basic directory layout for a Linux system
====================== Name & Summary Matched: filesystem ======================
[root@desk Downloads]# dnf install filesystem.x86_64
Last metadata expiration check: 0:22:13 ago on Mon 22 Oct 2018 08:15:33 PM EEST.
Package filesystem-3.8-2.fc28.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Complete!
I try again to see is something new , but I got the same error.
[root@desk Downloads]# dnf install steam-launcher-1.0.0.56-2.noarch.rpm
In conclusion: Fedora distro solves a number of shortcomings in the field of package management, but the efforts of the development team do not resolve to cover user requirements. However, the alien utility remains a very important step in the development process that should be updated and optimized to implement new software. I would add here my attempts to create Fedora packets with software that works normally on this distro (Blender 3D - version 2.8).
Let's hope that the Fedora development team will resolve these issues until the next version of this distro.