On Fri, Mar 02, 2001 at 01:10:35AM +0530, Ankit Jain wrote: | If i use src.tgz files to install somethin, say licq, then the 'database of | s/w installed' will not have ne details on 'licq' .. right? Is there any way | i can 'inform' the 'database' of existence of 'licq' or is it fine the way | it is?
You can inform the database by installing a .deb package. The system is fine (assuming it compiled properly, and isn't horridly buggy), but the package database won't know it exists and won't know what it depends on, and won't know what files belong to it, etc. It's a maintenance decision. The debian package system makes system maintenace much easier by keeping track of the packages you have. If licq needs, say, Qt (I don't know, I don't use it) and you installed it from the tarball, dpkg won't stop you from happily removing Qt. However, licq won't work any more. If you install from anything other than properly made .deb packages, it becomes your responsibility to keep track of files and dependencies. I would recommend sticking with .deb packages, and finding some way to acquire them. Perhaps you can wait until the next stable release, then get CDs from somewhere? Maybe you can access a computer with a faster/cheaper net connection and use some removable media to transfer the new packages? -D