Description of problem: alien fails with error message "Control file couldn't be read! at /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl/Alien/Package/Deb.pm line 162." Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 8.88 How reproducible: Every time. Steps to Reproduce: 1. ' alien -r CiscoPacketTracer-6.0.1-Ubuntu-no_tutorials.deb' 2. 3. Actual results: error messaage: 'Control file couldn't be read! at /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl/Alien/Package/Deb.pm line 162.' Expected results: an rpm file should be produced. Additional info:
I'm busy right now and will be for a two weeks. Then - I'm here. Please, could you provide link for this package? My alien-8.88-2.fc19.noarch provides no error on test cuneiform_1.1.0+dfsg-4_amd64.deb (https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/saucy/amd64/cuneiform/1.1.0+dfsg-4)
(In reply to Dmitrij S. Kryzhevich from comment #1) > I'm busy right now and will be for a two weeks. Then - I'm here. Excellent! :-) > Please, could you provide link for this package? I am sorry - I am not entirely sure what you are asking here. The alien package was freshly installed from F19 repositories using yum. As it happens I kept a log of the installation using tee and so can post it here.
Created attachment 790966 [details] log of yum package installation IIRC output captured by 'yum install alien.noarch | tee yum_install_alien'
(In reply to colin from comment #2) > (In reply to Dmitrij S. Kryzhevich from comment #1) > > Please, could you provide link for this package? > > I am sorry - I am not entirely sure what you are asking here. Where did you get CiscoPacketTracer-6.0.1-Ubuntu-no_tutorials.deb?
Packet Tracer is proprietary software provide by Cisco Ltd. I am not able to provide a link as I have to login to my Cisco Networking Academy account to be able to download it. Since their web service has undergone a revamp recently, and now seems to implemented by novice windows developers :-( I was attempting to investigate whether I could 'scratch my own itch' and provide a version that would install and run on Fedora by attempting to make use of their Ubuntu binary. (I wrote a HowTo for the previous version here: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=275435) Apparently even the Ubuntu installer wouldn't install unless you run this user-created script first: http://kaslnetwork.com/articles/installing-cisco-packettracer-5-3-2-on-64-bit-ubuntu-or-debian/ If it helps at all you have to uncompress a file called: 'Cisco Packet Tracer 6.0.1 for Linux - Ubuntu installation (no tutorials)' Which I then renamed to remove unnecessary awkward characters. I am sorry to be in the position of having called on your time due to the incompetent packaging of some proprietary software - but hey - it seems to be a worthwhile 'test case' in that it has provoked an error. ;-) I could probably run some other tool, analyser or utility on the binary if you wanted - all suggestions gratefully received. Once again thankyou for your attention - And I am quite happy to wait another fortnight or longer as necessary.
Further experimentation now shows a different result if the package name does not end with .deb [root@localhost yum]# alien -r /home/colin/Downloads/cisco/netacad.com/CiscoPacketTracer-6.0.1-Ubuntu-no_tutorials Unknown type of package, /home/colin/Downloads/cisco/netacad.com/CiscoPacketTracer-6.0.1-Ubuntu-no_tutorials Which looks like a reasonable and indeed expected error to encounter if the file was not structured as expected for a .deb Given that the error message that I originally reported could well actually be the result of the file not actually being a .deb - please do not feel the need to waste valuable developer time investigating a bug report that could ammount to little more than 'unexpected program state caused by user ignorance' ;-) Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
You could execute: # file <yourfile> If you have a valid deb file the result would be something like this: > $ file cuneiform_1.1.0+dfsg-4_amd64.deb > cuneiform_1.1.0+dfsg-4_amd64.deb: Debian binary package (format 2.0)
Looks like it should be closed.
.deb file which you are using to convert into rpm is somehow missing something, you may try redownloading your deb file and try again. This issue occurs only if your deb file has some issues.