Free deb software for linux

Debian Operating System is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system. This operating system is called Debian GNU/Linux, or simply Debian for short. Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel.
Linux is a completely free piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by thousands of programmers worldwide. Of course, the thing that people want is application software: programs to help them get what they want to do done, from editing documents to running a business to playing games to writing more software.
Debian comes with over 8000 packages (precompiled software that is bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine) - all of it free. Its a bit like a tower. At the base is the kernel. On top of that are all the basic tools.
Next is all the software that you run on the computer. At the top of the tower is Debian -- carefully organizing and fitting everything so it all works together.
Among versions of Linux, Debian is fairly unique, unlike most distributions it isnt backed by any for profit venture and instead is an all volunteer organization. There is no for profit company, or business plan behind Debian, it is a wide ranging project along the lines of GNU. Debian also provides the basis for a number of other Linux distributions, such as Lindows, Xandros, Libranet, and Knoppix.
The linchpin of Debian is a combination package management system and distribution network called forth by the mighty apt-get command. What makes this network so exceptional is that the dpkg-deb files which make up Debian packages contain information on their underlying dependencies so installing a package from the Debian network will call up all of its dependent packages.
As an example, installing a KDE application would make sure that KDE, X windows, and everything underneath was already installed on the system, and if the prerequisite packages werent already installed than the packages would automatically be downloaded and installed from the Debian network.
Enhancements:
- The Debian project has updated the stable distribution Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (codename Sarge). This update mainly adds security updates to the stable release, along with a few corrections to serious problems. In preparation for the upcoming release of Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 (codename Etch), Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 will be moved to the oldstable part of the archive. Users who would like to continue using Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 are advised to update their sources.list network sources to refer to sarge instead of stable. Please note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 but only updates some of the packages included.

Deb creator is a GTK wizard tool to build deb packages easily.

This software is based upon debhelper, dpkg-buildpackage, and other well tested tools. You can try to build simple package from source archive with some GNU-packaged software containing at least a Makefile and a configure script.

In the future this application will be able to perform advanced operation.

Note: you dont need any particular package building knowledge to use this.

Service menus for Debian package contains Konqueror service menus for Debian users. It was developed and tested on Debian Etch.
This package contains the modified versions of the following service menus from kde-apps.org:
1. Alien Tool by Kaisermart
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/Alien+Tool?content=33523
Use alien functions in a servicemenu. (Modifications: Improved apparence, different location in context menu.)
2. Debian Service Menu by Redclay
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/Debian+Service+Menu?content=16536
Simple kde service menu for managing debian packages. (Modifications: uses Konsole instead of x-term, kdesu instead of sudo for non-root users.)
Actions included:
- Install (dpkg -i)
- Uninstall (dpkg -r)
- Info (dpkg-deb -I && dpkg-deb -c)
- Installed files
- Changelog (changelog.gz)
- Changelog Debian (changelog.Debian.gz)
3. Root Actions Servicemenu by Kubicle
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/Root+Actions+Servicemenu?content=48411
(Modifications: Edit with KWrite and Open root Konsole here options were added.)
Actions included:
- Open (with default application)
- Run from here
- Run in Konsole
- Edit with KWrite
- Edit with Kate
- Edit with KHexEdit
- Open in Konqueror
- Open (root) Konsole here
- Change owner to root
- Change owner to user
Enhancements:
- More actions for root (Open with default application, Run from here, Run in Konsole)
- Fixed dependences
- Architecture independent .deb package

CerbeRun is a software able to parse .run files, then to execute them. CerbeRun is designed to make easier the use of Linux desktop computers for normal user, that is not forced to switch to root user in order to execute new applications. The main concept on which CerbeRun and the .run format are based is:

download
double-click
execution and enjoying

All is performed comfortably and with user grants only . Users from other systems are accustomed to download software and save it on supports, to be executed later or to be shared with friends. At present, it is not so easy (some times impossible) to save & distribute packages with .DEB or .RPM formats or other user-side formats (klik, 0install, packages), as in Mac or Windows systems.

CerbeRun and .run format, instead, merge the advantages of two above mentioned systems, because Windows .exe are single files to be executed, while Macintosh .app files can be installed and executed after a dragndrop, without a real installation step.

Archive::Ar is a Perl interface for manipulating ar archives.

SYNOPSIS

use Archive::Ar;

my $ar = new Archive::Ar("./foo.ar");

$ar->add_data("newfile.txt","Some contents", $properties);

$ar->add_files("./bar.tar.gz", "bat.pl")
$ar->add_files(["./again.gz"]);

$ar->remove("file1", "file2");
$ar->remove(["file1", "file2");

my $filedata = $ar->get_content("bar.tar.gz");

my @files = $ar->list_files();
$ar->read("foo.deb");

$ar->write("outbound.ar");

$ar->DEBUG();

Archive::Ar is a pure-perl way to handle standard ar archives.

This is useful if you have those types of old archives on the system, but it is also useful because .deb packages for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution are ar archives. This is one building block in a future chain of modules to build, manipulate, extract, and test debian modules with no platform or architecture dependence.

You may notice that the API to Archive::Ar is similar to Archive::Tar, and this was done intentionally to keep similarity between the Archive::* modules

Class Methods
new()
new($filename)
new(*GLOB,$debug)

Returns a new Archive::Ar object. Without a filename or glob, it returns an empty object. If passed a filename as a scalar or in a GLOB, it will attempt to populate from either of those sources. If it fails, you will receive undef, instead of an object reference.

This also can take a second optional debugging parameter. This acts exactly as if DEBUG() is called on the object before it is returned. If you have a new() that keeps failing, this should help.
read($filename)
read(*GLOB);

This reads a new file into the object, removing any ar archive already represented in the object. Any calls to DEBUG() are not lost by reading in a new file. Returns the number of bytes read, undef on failure.

read_memory($data)

This read information from the first parameter, and attempts to parse and treat it like an ar archive. Like read(), it will wipe out whatever you have in the object and replace it with the contents of the new archive, even if it fails. Returns the number of bytes read (processed) if successful, undef otherwise.

list_files()
This lists the files contained inside of the archive by filename, as an array.
add_files("filename1", "filename2")
add_files(["filename1", "filename2"])

Takes an array or an arrayref of filenames to add to the ar archive, in order. The filenames can be paths to files, in which case the path information is stripped off. Filenames longer than 16 characters are truncated when written to disk in the format, so keep that in mind when adding files.

Due to the nature of the ar archive format, add_files() will store the uid, gid, mode, size, and creation date of the file as returned by stat();

add_files() returns the number of files successfully added, or undef on failure.
add_data("filename", $filedata)

Takes an filename and a set of data to represent it. Unlike add_files, add_data is a virtual add, and does not require data on disk to be present. The data is a hash that looks like:

$filedata = {
"data" => $data,
"uid" => $uid, #defaults to zero
"gid" => $gid, #defaults to zero
"date" => $date, #date in epoch seconds. Defaults to now.
"mode" => $mode, #defaults to "100644";
}

You cannot add_data over another file however. This returns the file length in bytes if it is successful, undef otherwise.

write()
write("filename.ar")

This method will return the data as an .ar archive, or will write to the filename present if specified. If given a filename, write() will return the length of the file written, in bytes, or undef on failure. If the filename already exists, it will overwrite that file.
get_content("filename")

This returns a hash with the file content in it, including the data that the file would naturally contain. If the file does not exist or no filename is given, this returns undef. On success, a hash is returned with the following keys:

name - The file name
date - The file date (in epoch seconds)
uid - The uid of the file
gid - The gid of the file
mode - The mode permissions
size - The size (in bytes) of the file
data - The contained data
remove("filename1", "filename2")
remove(["filename1", "filename2"])

The remove method takes a filenames as a list or as an arrayref, and removes them, one at a time, from the Archive::Ar object. This returns the number of files successfully removed from the archive.

DEBUG()

This method turns on debugging. Optionally this can be done by passing in a value as the second parameter to new. While verbosity is enabled, Archive::Ar will toss a warn() if there is a suspicious condition or other problem while proceeding. This should help iron out any problems you have while using the module.

dtrx is a tool for Unix-like systems that takes all the hassle out of extracting archives. Heres an example of how you use it:
$ dtrx linux-2.6.10.tar.bz2
Thats basically the same thing as:
$ tar -jxf linux-2.6.10.tar.bz2
Main features:
- Handles many archive types: You only need to remember one simple command to extract tar, zip, cpio, deb, rpm, gz, and bz2 files. If they have any extra compression, like tar.bz2, dtrx will take care of that for you, too.
- Keeps everything organized: dtrx will make sure that archives are extracted into their own dedicated directories.
- Sane permissions: dtrx makes sure you can read and write all the files you just extracted, while leaving the rest of the permissions intact.
- Recursive extraction: dtrx can find archives inside the archive and extract those too.

SmoothSlideSaver is a KDE screensaver which shows images from a directory as an OpenGL slideshow. SmoothSlideSaver screensaver uses the famous Ken Burns effect and smoothly fades from one image to the next.

You dont need to worry about complicated configuration options, everything should run smoothly out of the box. Just select a directory with some nice pictures (e.g., your digital photo collection) and let the show begin.

There are prebuilt packages for Debian and Ubuntu (i386 architecture, only). You can either download them via the links below, or more conveniently, apt-get them:

Put one of the following lines into your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://web.inf.tu-dresden.de/~cw183155/smoothslidesaver debian-sarge/ # Debian stable "Sarge"

deb http://web.inf.tu-dresden.de/~cw183155/smoothslidesaver debian-unstable/ # Debian unstable (requires KDE 3.5.0 from Alioth (or experimental?))

deb http://web.inf.tu-dresden.de/~cw183155/smoothslidesaver ubuntu-breezy/ # (K)Ubuntu "Breezy"

Then do the usual steps to install the package:

#> apt-get update
#> apt-get install smoothslidesaver

If you have another Debian based distribution and/or architecture (or if the unstable packages cant be installed), you can easily build your own package. Add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb-src http://web.inf.tu-dresden.de/~cw183155/smoothslidesaver source/

Then execute the following commands:

#> apt-get update
#> mkdir smoothslidesaver
#> cd smoothslidesaver
#> apt-get build-dep smoothslidesaver
#> apt-get source --compile smoothslidesaver
#> dpkg -i smoothslidesaver_*.deb

If you have another distribution installed on your computer, you will have to do it the hard way, sorry :-/ Download the source tarball from the link below, untar it and then execute the following steps in the source directory:

#> ./configure
#> make
#> make install

If anyone wants to provide an .rpm or Slackware package, please contact me (you can find my email address in the AUTHORS file).