Sometimes you might find some applications that only have *.rpm files but you want a *.deb package for your Debian/Ubuntu or any otherdebian derived ditributions. If you can’t find a *.deb debian package in any of the Debian/Ubuntu repositories or elsewhere, you can use the alien package converter to install the *.rpm file.

Alien is a program that converts between the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and slackware tgz file formats. If you want to use a package from another distribution than the one you have installed on your system, you can use alien to convert it to your preferred package format and install it.

Despite the large version number, alien is still (and will probably always be) rather experimental software. It has been used by many people for many years, but there are still many bugs and limitations.

Alien should not be used to replace important system packages, like sysvinit, shared libraries, or other things that are essential for the functioning of your system. Many of these packages are set up differently by Debian and Red Hat, and packages from the different distributions cannot be used interchangably. In general, if you can’t uninstall the package without breaking your system, don’t try to replace it with an alien version.

First install alien in your Ubuntu:

markdark@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install alien
[sudo] password for markdark:

This will install all the required packages. Now you can start converting your *.rpm files to *.deb packages.

Available Options for alien

Convert the package.rpm into a package.deb

markdark@ubuntu:~$ sudo alien -d package-name.rpm

Convert the package.rpm into a package.deb, and install the generated package.

markdark@ubuntu:~$ sudo alien -i package-name.rpm

If you want to keep alien from changing the version number use the following command:

markdark@ubuntu:~$ sudo alien -k package-name.rpm

For example:

Suppose we have a AVG Antivirus - avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.rpm file. To convert .rpm to .deb:

markdark@ubuntu:~$ sudo alien -k avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.rpm

Now you should have a file called avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.deb. To install this .deb file:

markdark@ubuntu:~$ dpkg -i avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.deb

If you don’t use the -k option you will see that the file avg71lms_r30-1_i386.deb is different. There is a digit 1 added. For more avaible options for alien please read the fine manual.