How to Install Deb Packages on Arch Linux Manually

Sourav Goswami 20 November, 2020 | 04:52:58 UTC (+0000)

Archlinux is based on Pacman package manager. But many packages just comes as Deb or RPM. The Edge browser from Microsoft or the Anydesk remote desktop software are two common examples. However most of them can be installed from the AUR. It's the most simplistic way to install those debian apps. But if you look closer, most PKGBUILD actually unpacks a deb file or rpm file and copies the content over to the place where it should be. Unpacking debian package and manually copying files is very simple and the most straight forward way to run any debian package that is not available be in the AUR. A debian package contains either binary files or source code for an application to run. We also need to install the dependency if there's any.

1. Downloading the Package

Download the deb package. Let's download the Microsoft Edge browser (deb) for this tutorial.

2. Extracting the Package

After we have downloaded the debian package, create a new folder with anyname you want. It will make sure the things we extract are inside the directory. Now we will extract it with the command ar x, for example:

		ar x microsoft-edge-dev_88.0.702.0-1_amd64.deb

The version will be different for you. We have the following files now:

		command ls -l
		total 173004
		-rw-r--r-- 1 sourav sourav     6254 Nov 20 13:31 control.tar.gz
		-rw-r--r-- 1 sourav sourav 88564352 Nov 20 13:31 data.tar.xz
		-rw-r--r-- 1 sourav sourav        4 Nov 20 13:31 debian-binary
		-rw-r--r-- 1 sourav sourav      492 Nov 20 13:31 _gpgorigin
		-rw-r--r-- 1 sourav sourav 88571350 Nov 20 13:29 microsoft-edge-dev_88.0.702.0-1_amd64.deb

The data is generally located in data.tar.xz. The control.tar.xz has a file called control where dependencies info and other info are stored. We genrally don't have to do anything with that file except installing the dependencies ourselves. The next step is to extract the data.tar.xz:

		tar -xvf data.tar.xz
		./
		./opt/
		./opt/microsoft/
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/product_logo_256_dev.png
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/v8_context_snapshot.bin
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/libtelclient.so
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/msedge-sandbox
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/crashpad_handler
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/msedge_200_percent.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/WidevineCdm/
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/WidevineCdm/_platform_specific/
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/WidevineCdm/_platform_specific/linux_x64/
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/WidevineCdm/_platform_specific/linux_x64/libwidevinecdm.so
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/WidevineCdm/manifest.json
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/product_logo_48_dev.png
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/nacl_helper_bootstrap
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/nacl_irt_x86_64.nexe
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/cron/
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/cron/microsoft-edge-dev
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/default-app-block
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/libsmartscreen.so
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/resources.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/xdg-mime
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/product_logo_32_dev.png
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/liboneds.so
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/product_logo_32_dev.xpm
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/product_logo_16_dev.png
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/xdg-settings
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/msedge_100_percent.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/icudtl.dat
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/nacl_helper
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/product_logo_128_dev.png
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/libGLESv2.so
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/product_logo_24_dev.png
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/microsoft-edge-dev
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ro.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/km.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/mi.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/mk.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/bn-IN.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/sr-Cyrl-BA.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/zh-TW.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/eu.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/fr.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/pt-PT.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/en-GB.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/or.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/nn.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/id.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/sl.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/es-419.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ka.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/pl.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/uk.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ms.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/kok.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/cy.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/da.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/kn.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/te.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/gd.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/hr.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/mt.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/fa.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/th.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/zh-TW.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/fr.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/ru.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/zh-CN.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/ja.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/en-US.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/ko.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/de.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/pt-BR.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/es.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/devtools/it.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/lb.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/am.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/lt.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/as.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/tr.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/lo.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/nb.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/he.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ta.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ru.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/zh-CN.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/hi.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/bs.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/sv.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/sk.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ar.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/et.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ja.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/fil.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/is.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/fr-CA.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ne.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/bg.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/sq.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/mr.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ga.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/en-US.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ml.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ug.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/lv.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/az.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ur.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ko.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/vi.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/sr.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/kk.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/gl.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ca.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/gu.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/cs.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/el.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/hu.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/ca-Es-VALENCIA.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/nl.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/tt.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/de.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/af.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/sr-Latn-RS.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/pt-BR.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/fi.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/pa.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/qu.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/es.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/locales/it.pak
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/MEIPreload/
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/MEIPreload/preloaded_data.pb
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/MEIPreload/manifest.json
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/liblearning_tools.so
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/swiftshader/
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/swiftshader/libGLESv2.so
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/swiftshader/libEGL.so
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/msedge
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/libmicrosoft_apis.so
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/product_logo_64_dev.png
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/libEGL.so
		./etc/
		./etc/cron.daily/
		./usr/
		./usr/bin/
		./usr/share/
		./usr/share/gnome-control-center/
		./usr/share/gnome-control-center/default-apps/
		./usr/share/gnome-control-center/default-apps/microsoft-edge-dev.xml
		./usr/share/menu/
		./usr/share/menu/microsoft-edge-dev.menu
		./usr/share/doc/
		./usr/share/doc/microsoft-edge-dev/
		./usr/share/doc/microsoft-edge-dev/changelog.gz
		./usr/share/applications/
		./usr/share/applications/microsoft-edge-dev.desktop
		./usr/share/appdata/
		./usr/share/appdata/microsoft-edge-dev.appdata.xml
		./usr/share/man/
		./usr/share/man/man1/
		./usr/share/man/man1/microsoft-edge-dev.1.gz
		./opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/microsoft-edge
		./etc/cron.daily/microsoft-edge-dev
		./usr/bin/microsoft-edge-dev

3. Execute the Binary

Right, now we have all the files we need. We can execute MSEdge right now without doing anything much. In our case, we can execute MSEdge from the current working directory:

Most of the packages can be run this way unless the software itself contain the absolute path in itself. In that case we need to move the directories in the proper place.

4. Installing

The extracted files have the info where each file should go. In general: move the ./opt/* to /opt/ move the ./etc/* to /etc/ move the ./usr/* to /usr/ move the ./bin/* to /bin/ ...You get it. Make sure to have chown root:root to all the files, and proper read permission. For binaries, you need to have chmod 755. But you should probably look more closely in files and see if there's any behaviour that you don't want. For example, running the app in background isn't something you want.

5. Creating the /bin/ File Manually

If you don't have a /bin/ entry, make sure you have one, in case of MSEdge:

		/bin/msedge
		/opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/msedge &>/dev/null &

6. Creating Desktop Entry Manually

In most cases, ./usr/share/applications/ should have a desktop entry (ending with .desktop) extension. Moving that to /usr/share/applications should give you a nice desktop entry that you can use to launch the application from the menu. That allows your DE to show your app in the menu:

You won't see your app unless you create the desktop entry. With MSEdge though, you will put this:

		/usr/share/applications/msedge.desktop
		[Desktop Entry]
		Type=Application
		Name=Edge
		GenericName=Edge Browser Dev
		Comment=Microsoft Edge Browser
		Exec=/opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/msedge %u
		Icon=/opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/product_logo_48_dev.png
		MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;text/mml;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
		Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
		Keywords=web;browser;internet;
		Actions=new-window;new-private-window;

		[Desktop Action new-window]
		Name=New Window
		Exec=/opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/msedge %u

		[Desktop Action new-private-window]
		Name=New Incognito Window
		Exec=/opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/msedge --inprivate %u

In my case, I have moved edge to /opt/, but haven't moved any contents from /etc/ and /usr/. If you want to know more: Desktop Menu Specification Now you will have an icon showing in the menu, you can add it to your desktop or panel for quicker access:

Some packages like AnyDesktop for example, requires a systemd unit. You can either copy the contents from data.tar.xz or create that file manually. Now you have a working manual installation of your favourite debian package on Arch Linux!

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