Pdebthing DEB downloader and packager 005
Posted: Sat 21 Aug 2010, 16:49
Hello, puppians! Meet Pdebthing, my latest and greatest gift to the Puppy world.
What is it?
Pdebthing is a tool for downloading Ubuntu or Debian packages and all their dependencies. It can also extract the downloaded packages so you can make SFSs.
The bottom line: Pdebthing offers fully automated and easy SFS creation for Ubuntu or Debian-based puppies.
What can I do with it?
You can use Pdebthing to download DEB packages with all, but ALL their dependencies.
Pdebthing shines when dealing with big and heavy packages like KDE, Amarok or all GNOME stuff. Pdebthing is really powerful with handling dependencies and can definitely aid you when dealing with such packages.
Also, Pdebthing can extract all the packages it downloads to form one big package. Later, you can use the it for SFS creation. The possibilities are endless.
What are the requirements to run Pdebthing?.
- Run Lupu or any other Ubuntu-built Puppy
- You must have the devx installed.
How do I use it?
First of all, Pdebthing is not for average and non-techy users. You need to be familiar with Puppy and the console in order to be able to use Pdebthing.
Pdebthing has two configuration files: config/preferences and config/packages.
The former contains all preferences. Here's my configuration file (Pdebthing comes with it by default):
This file contains only 4 parameters:
- A list of Ubuntu or Debian repositories, such as http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu (the official Ubuntu mirror). Remove repositories you don't need.
- The version of the Ubuntu or Debian the packages are compiled for. Can be “hardy", “jaunty", “karmic", “lucid" or “maverick", "lenny", "squeeze" and so on. Use “lucid" if you want to make packages for Lupu and "squeeze" if you make packages for dpup.
- The sections of the repository to support - in Ubuntu you have "main", "multiverse" , "restricted" and "universe", but Debian has "main", "contrib" and "nonfree". Leave all unless you know what you're doing.
- The architecture the packages are compiled for - i386 or amd64. Leave the default of i386 unless you use Fatdog.
- A setting called "downloadInstalled", can be either "true" or "false": if set to "false", packages that come with your Puppy won't be downloaded. Ideal if you want to make SFSs. Bear in mind that the detection of packages that came with your Puppy works only with Lupu or dpup (since their packages use their Ubuntu or Debian names) and packages that went into the devx are treated as packages that came with it.
The "config" directory has two sample files, for Debian Squeeze and Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat. Just take one of them and modify it to suit your needs - just make sure you use the right distro version.
EDIT: add "free" to the repo sections if you use Ubuntu. I found out Medibuntu has just "free" and "nonfree" sections, the former isn't listed in the sample configuration file.
Also, Pdebthing needs a list of packages to download; that’s config/packages. Check their names through packages.ubuntu.com, because some package names are different on Ubuntu and Debian (for instance, glibc’s package is named “libc6“ and libmad’s package is named
What is it?
Pdebthing is a tool for downloading Ubuntu or Debian packages and all their dependencies. It can also extract the downloaded packages so you can make SFSs.
The bottom line: Pdebthing offers fully automated and easy SFS creation for Ubuntu or Debian-based puppies.
What can I do with it?
You can use Pdebthing to download DEB packages with all, but ALL their dependencies.
Pdebthing shines when dealing with big and heavy packages like KDE, Amarok or all GNOME stuff. Pdebthing is really powerful with handling dependencies and can definitely aid you when dealing with such packages.
Also, Pdebthing can extract all the packages it downloads to form one big package. Later, you can use the it for SFS creation. The possibilities are endless.
What are the requirements to run Pdebthing?.
- Run Lupu or any other Ubuntu-built Puppy
- You must have the devx installed.
How do I use it?
First of all, Pdebthing is not for average and non-techy users. You need to be familiar with Puppy and the console in order to be able to use Pdebthing.
Pdebthing has two configuration files: config/preferences and config/packages.
The former contains all preferences. Here's my configuration file (Pdebthing comes with it by default):
Code: Select all
# the Debian version the packages are built for
distroVersion="squeeze"
# the repositories to support: the the Trinity (the KDE 3.x fork) Debian repo, the USA Debian mirror and Debian Multimedia
repositories="http://mirror.its.uidaho.edu/pub/trinity/trinity/debian http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian http://debian-multimedia.org"
# the repository sections to support
sections="main contrib non-free"
# the package architecture (i386/amd64)
arch="i386"
# download all packages (true) or just those that don't come with Puppy (false, the default)?
# (download all packages, including those that ship with Puppy, or only those that don't?)
downloadInstalled="false"
- A list of Ubuntu or Debian repositories, such as http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu (the official Ubuntu mirror). Remove repositories you don't need.
- The version of the Ubuntu or Debian the packages are compiled for. Can be “hardy", “jaunty", “karmic", “lucid" or “maverick", "lenny", "squeeze" and so on. Use “lucid" if you want to make packages for Lupu and "squeeze" if you make packages for dpup.
- The sections of the repository to support - in Ubuntu you have "main", "multiverse" , "restricted" and "universe", but Debian has "main", "contrib" and "nonfree". Leave all unless you know what you're doing.
- The architecture the packages are compiled for - i386 or amd64. Leave the default of i386 unless you use Fatdog.
- A setting called "downloadInstalled", can be either "true" or "false": if set to "false", packages that come with your Puppy won't be downloaded. Ideal if you want to make SFSs. Bear in mind that the detection of packages that came with your Puppy works only with Lupu or dpup (since their packages use their Ubuntu or Debian names) and packages that went into the devx are treated as packages that came with it.
The "config" directory has two sample files, for Debian Squeeze and Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat. Just take one of them and modify it to suit your needs - just make sure you use the right distro version.
EDIT: add "free" to the repo sections if you use Ubuntu. I found out Medibuntu has just "free" and "nonfree" sections, the former isn't listed in the sample configuration file.
Also, Pdebthing needs a list of packages to download; that’s config/packages. Check their names through packages.ubuntu.com, because some package names are different on Ubuntu and Debian (for instance, glibc’s package is named “libc6“ and libmad’s package is named