Repository Configuration

Ubuntu, a variant of Debian, uses the /etc/apt/sources.list to configure which repositories to subscribe to for available packages and errata updates.  Generally these repositories are subscribed to by way of development codename.  For example:

http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu intrepid main restricted universe multiverse

A line like this in your Ubuntu configuration would subscribe to the Ubuntu 8.10 “Intrepid” repository for the life of that release (18 months).  It would also be able to pull updates and packages from the main, restricted, universe and multiverse areas of the repository.

Debian can follow the same standard–a repository configuration example might be something like this:

deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free

As you can see, these are both very similar.  The only differences are the development codenames, “Intrepid” vs “Lenny” and the naming of the repository subdivisions.  non-free vs universe/multiverse, etc.

Subscribing to Stable

The one difference that I have learned with Debian however is that you have the ability to use release aliases instead of development codenames.  For example, I could change “lenny” to “stable” and my machine would subscribe to the “stable” repository as long as one exists.  The key difference here is that “stable” evolves as the distribution evolves.  Whereas in the Ubuntu configuration I would need to update my configuration each time I want to migrate to a new “stable” version, Debian allows me to simple subscribe to “stable” and my machine would follow, and upgrade, to each stable release as long as it is in service.

Here is the sources.list that I use on my current Debian 5.0 web server:

deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile stable/volatile main contrib non-free


You’ll notice that I’m using “stable” instead of “lenny” even though, at this point, they are technically the same thing.  When the next release is final however my machine will automagically subscibe to the newer repository, and I would never have needed to change my config.  Why doesn’t Ubuntu offer something like this?

If you have not seen the new dashboard in WP 2.7 you should really check it out. Its really clean and slick–I really like it.

In any event, I hope to continue my FreeBSD and miscellaneous posts here while the ‘buntu specific stuff will be on Ubuntu Tutorials.

1. origami.docs only needs a list of the docs, not the destination directory.
2. lintian tells you how to fix the problem.  Pay attention and read!
3. spell “licenses” correctly if you’re going to refer to “common-licenses”

At this point it looks like the only thing I have left to create is a man page and, according to lintian, origami will be error-free.  Anyone know how’n the hell to do that?

Until I figure that out I’m going to take this debian/ directory and save it in a bzr branch so if I get lost again I have a good, valid, working copy.

Big thanks to LaserJock for the help today!

What I was trying to do was build a .deb for VirtualBox 1.6 that was released just a few days ago.  I downloaded it to tinker with, assuming I would have to just compile the source, but I noticed it had a debian/ directory.  I figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a try, so I tried building it.  I wanted to outline what I tried to do (so all of the real packagers out there can correct me), but I will say that I am still stuck on getting it built in pbuilder.  I do have it built and running on my local machine, but when I build it in pbuilder something dies.

What I tried (please comment with tips / corrections)

The first thing I did was download the VirtualBox 1.6 OSE from Sun (Yes, if you hadn’t heard, Innotek was recently bought by Sun).  From this I ended up with a VirtualBox-1.6.0-OSE.tar.bz2.

I unpacked this, which created a VirtualBox-1.6.0_OSE directory to work in.

Now, to try and appease the source-package-gods I re-packed that directory into a .orig.tar.gz and created a .orig/ directory as well.

QUESTION: Why does the source need to be in a .tar.gz format?

The .orig.tar.gz that I created used the naming convention virtualbox_ose_1.6.0.orig.tar.gz.

The .orig/ directory also had the naming convention virtualbox_ose_1.6.0.orig/.

QUESTION: I understand the naming convention should be <packagename>-<version>.  How is this handled when <packagename> is two words?

I first tried to build the package with the default debian/ directory that came with the download.  I quickly found that this had some things wrong with it.

1. The debian/changelog latest revision referred to 1.5.51~svn-1.
2. There were missing Build-Depends on my machine (libxml2-dev, libxslt-dev, libpng-dev,…)

I then used dch -v 1.6 to create a new changelog version (This is 1.6 after all, not 1.5.51~svn), and added the details of my changes:

• Corrected changelog version reference
• Added required build-depends (libxml2-dev, libxslt-dev, libpng-dev,…)

QUESTION: Is this the proper way to document what I needed to change to build 1.6?

At this point the package did build using dpkg-buildpackage and it installed properly on my machine.  I did not yet run lintian, as I’m sure there are still plenty of things that are broken.

I tried to take this one step further and build it in pbuilder.  This is where things really got stuck.  I get into the build process and then it dies on finding Xlibs.  It is frustrating because it will build on my machine, but not in pbuilder, and I can’t figure out what package provides what it is looking for.

Here is a snippet of the build and the error.  I would appreciate any tips on how to figure out what package is needed to resolve this.

Checking for environment: Determined build machine: linux.x86, target machine: linux.x86, OK.
Checking for kBuild: found, OK.
Checking for gcc: found version 4.2.3, OK.
Checking for as86: found version 0.16.17, OK.
Checking for bcc: found version 0.16.17, OK.
Checking for iasl: found version 20061109, OK.
Checking for xslt: found, OK.
Checking for pthread: found, OK.
Checking for libxml2: found version 2.6.31, OK.
Checking for libxslt: found version 1.1.22, OK.
Checking for libIDL: found version 0.8.10, OK.
Checking for zlib: found version 1.2.3.3, OK.
Checking for libpng: found version 1.2.15beta5, OK.
Checking for SDL: found version 1.2.12, OK.
Checking for X libraries:
Xlibs not found at -L/usr/X11R6/lib -L/usr/X11R6/lib64 -L/usr/local/lib -lXext -lX11 -I/usr/local/include or Xlibs headers not found

I have tried a few X packages but they don’t seem to do the trick.  I even peeked into the PUEL pre-packaged version available for download and added any missing depends they had that I didn’t.  At this point I’m stuck wondering how to figure out the issue.  Any tips?

New Packages:

1. I would like origami to be 100% compliant and available in Ubuntu 8.10 “Intrepid”
2. I would like the EeePC to be supported / configured by way of a simple package installation.

I know it is not recommended to start with new packaging when just getting started, but these are listed as some of my longer term goals for Ubuntu 8.10.  Before I get to this point I hope to be of some help during the merge process and help with patches as well.

I will continue to try and update daily with progress, thoughts and study.  If you don’t hear from this blog for a couple of days please prod me into action!