How to install .rpm on Ubuntu? [closed]

Question

I am an ubuntu user, however I need to install a printer driver which is a RPM (*.rpm) file (Sorry it's the only driver available from the Manufacturer site for Linux).

Is it possible to install RPM files on ubuntu?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

From https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RPM/AlienHowto , use the alien package:

Alien converts an RPM package file into a Debian package file or Alien can install an RPM file directly. This is not the recommended way to install software packages in Ubuntu. If at all possible, install packages from Ubuntu's repositories using Add/Remove, apt-get, or the Synaptic Package Manager. Package dependency conflicts may occur when attempting to install RPM packages.

These commands should do it:

sudo apt-get install alien sudo alien -i package_file.rpm 

And from alien's man page :

WARNING

alien should not be used to replace important system packages, like init, libc, or other things that are essential for the functioning of your system. Many of these packages are set up differently by the different distributions, and packages from the different distributions cannot be used interchangeably. In general, if you can't remove a package without breaking your system, don't try to replace it with an alien version.

Answer 2

Another option on this theme:

% mkdir tmp && cd tmp % rpm2cpio packagefile-1.0.0.rpm | cpio -id 

This will unpack the RPM -- much like tar/gzip -- into the temporary directory. This should be enough to allow you to access the files (ppm?) and scripts you need.