One of the key criteria for me, before I move my main PC over to a new openSUSE distribution version, is that the applications that I use on a day to day basis, work well in the new version.
dvbcut is one such application for me, as I often will create a .mpg file, that has parts that I wish clipped out (right down to the frame level) and dvbcut will do that. Dvbcut is not provided by Novell/SuSE-GmbH, but it has in the past been packaged by the Packman packagers.
Unfortunately, it tends to be low on the Packman packager priority list of the MANY apps they have to convert when a new openSUSE release comes out. The last few distribution updates (for 10.2 and 10.3) about 4 to 8 weeks after they were released, I ended up sending the Packman Packager (who has packaged “dvbcut” in the past) an email asking they move dvbcut up “in priority” to be packaged for 10.2/10.3. They were good enough to comply, but I sort of hate that dependence on them to help me out (when it might mean I “bump” someone else in their priority list). I’ve tried to rebuild dvbcut (from the .src file of earlier openSUSE versions) and I’ve also tried to compile it from the tarball (with ./configure, make … etc ) but in both cases I failed.
This time, for openSUSE-11.0 (on my test pc) I tried something different. I decided to use the program " alien ". First I checked I had alien installed on my openSUSE-11.0. I did not, but it comes with openSUSE, so it was a simple matter to install “alien” with my Software Package Manager (I mostly use Smart).
I went to DVBCUT website and downloaded the .deb file to a directory on my /home/oldcpu partition. Then in a konsole with root permissions I ran:
alien -rv dvbcut_0.5.4_i386.deb
which produced the rpm dvbcut-0.5.4-i386.rpm which I then installed (with no problems) with the Smart Software package manager.
I then typed: dvbcut from a konsole and it ran. I opened a test.mpg file, and was successfully able to do the editing I wanted.
Very nice.
I’ll probably still install the Packman packager’s dvbcut, when it is finally released (as I like to also do a quality check on some of the Packman packaging) but at the moment, I feel no pressure to have to also pressure the Packman packager.