IPK File Format

[omega]

Hi,

From what i understood .ipk files are supposed to be really tar files.  I am having problem with octave, and a few other files in the past were ipkg graphical installer wouldn't see a package and the command line complained that it couldn't uncompress them.

So i uncompressed octave.ipk with ar and i got three files, control,..., debian-binary.  How do i install this? Can i repackage this as a normal ipk so that the installer can handle it?

Are these ar files from pdaxrom? Why do they exist like this, and why is there no compatibility? Would it not be possible to configure ipkg to try tar and then ar if it is not successful?

[dhns]

I also sometimes came across this issue. I think there are several releases of ipgk tool out there and one uses ar and the other tar. The one of the standard Zaurus ROM is NOT able to detect the format.

If you have successfully unpacked to control, data, debina-binary, simply repack to a tar archive (with tar cvzf new-package_arm_ipk ./control ./data ./debian-binary) and the installer should find and install.

But depending on the content it still might not work.

The first thing I try when it is not installing is if it is really a gzipped file (tar tvzf file.ipk). Sometimes (seems to depend on the web page server) my browser plugin is too helpful and already unzips.

-- hns

[tumnus]

It's all in the FAQ:

http://www.zaurususergroup.com/modules.php...parent_id=0#202
http://www.zaurususergroup.com/modules.php...parent_id=0#203
http://www.zaurususergroup.com/modules.php...parent_id=0#213

[omega]

Okay i tried to retar it but it says that tar doesn't support compression to use busybox gunzip? I couldn't fully understand what it wanted me to do. Where can i get a version of tar that will compress?

BTW, i just copied over the files manually and it worked great.

[omega]

Also, i'd love to get a copy of something that could compress in rar format.

[tumnus]

Okay i tried to retar it but it says that tar doesn't support compression to use busybox gunzip?

tar on the Zaurus doesn't have gzip compression compiled in, only decompression.

So you have to do:

tar -cvf myfile.tar ./debian-binary ./data.tar.gz ./control.tar.gz
gzip myfile.tar
mv myfile.tar.gz myfile.ipk

(That's all the compression support in tar basically does anyway)

[omega]

Cool. Cheers tumnus.

[Stubear]

Also, i'd love to get a copy of something that could compress in rar format.

You have rar on the Cacko rom - at least it was last time I installed it.

If the version of tar doesn't accept gzip or other compression then you can do it in 2 steps or pipe to gzip

Code: [Select]

tar cvf package.ipk ./data.tar.gz ./control.tar.gz ./debian-binary
gzip package.ipk
mv pacakge.ipk.gz package.ipk
or better

Code: [Select]

tar cvf - ./data.tar.gz ./control.tar.gz ./debian-binary | gzip - > package.ipk
You can replace gzip with whatever compressor you'd liek to use (bzip2, rar, Z etc)

Stu