Using Apt-Get or Aptitude with Debian (Deb) Package (using Google Chrome as an Example)

Update:

Since the last post I have discovered an easier method to auto-resolve dependencies for local *.deb packages. Simply install with dpkg and follow up by installing with aptitude which will resolve your dependencies.

sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb

sudo aptitude udpate

sudo aptitude install google-chrome-stable

Original:

Ever download a *.deb package only to find out you were missing a boat load of dependencies. Rather than go through the headache of resolving dependency after dependency I make a simple local repository to handle this problem. I will provide you with a solution that can work with any proper Debian package.

For this example I will be using Google Chrome. Google Chrome is not available within the Debian mirror repositories because it does not fit the Debian free standard. (Yes I know Google Chromium is available, but I need an excuse to download Google Chrome). So head over to http://www.google.com/chrome and download the latest *.debian package. In my case it was google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb. After you have downloaded chrome it should be in your Downloads directory. Go to this directory and create a chrome sub directory.

cd ~/Downloads

mkdir chrome

Next you'll need some additional dpkg tools. They will assist in creating Debian mirrors.

sudo aptitude install build-essentials

Use these new tools to create local repository listing.  dpkg-scanpackages takes one argument which indicates the current directory to scan and outputs information to stdout. Use gzip to create a zipped text file. The arguments 9 indicates the highest zip and c stdout to the specified location. Use zmore to do a quick sanity check to ensure that the out worked

sudo dpkg-scanpackages . | gzip -9c > chrome/Packages.gz

zmore chrome/Packages.gz

Now add the package to your apt source list

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

#append this to sources.list

deb file:/home/shane/Desktop chrome/

Now its time to install Google Chrome. Update your repository listing and install.

Untrusted Packages!

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude install google-chrome-stable

Untrusted Packages?!?! We'll its because we did not digitally sign and apt-key. But if you are doing this, you should be the system administrator and have downloaded and followed these instructions. So we have to trust Google is not going to $%# it up.

Hurray! We have Google Chrome

For basic housekeeping you should remove the Chrome package from your sources and delete the no longer needed Debian package.

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

cd ~/Download

sudo rm -r chrome

sudo rm google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb

Have fun and good luck!