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<title>The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ - Compatibility issues</title>
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<p><a name="ch-compat"></a></p>
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<h1>
The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
<br>Chapter 3 - Compatibility issues
</h1>
<hr>
<h2><a name="s-arches"></a>3.1 On what hardware architectures/systems does Debian GNU/Linux run?</h2>
<p>
Debian GNU/Linux includes complete source-code for all of the included
programs, so it should work on all systems which are supported by the Linux
kernel; see the <code><a
href="http://en.tldp.org/FAQ/Linux-FAQ/intro.html#DOES-LINUX-RUN-ON-MY-COMPUTER">Linux
FAQ</a></code> for details.
</p>
<p>
The current Debian GNU/Linux release, 3.1, contains a complete, binary
distribution for the following architectures:
</p>
<p>
<em>i386</em>: this covers PCs based on Intel and compatible processors,
including Intel's 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II (both Klamath and
Celeron), and Pentium III, and most compatible processors by AMD, Cyrix and
others.
</p>
<p>
<em>m68k</em>: this covers Amigas and ATARIs having a Motorola 680x0 processor
for x>=2; with MMU.
</p>
<p>
<em>alpha</em>: Compaq/Digital's Alpha systems.
</p>
<p>
<em>sparc</em>: this covers Sun's SPARC and most UltraSPARC systems.
</p>
<p>
<em>powerpc</em>: this covers some IBM/Motorola PowerPC machines, including
CHRP, PowerMac and PReP machines.
</p>
<p>
<em>arm</em>: ARM and StrongARM machines.
</p>
<p>
<em>mips</em>: SGI's big-endian MIPS systems, Indy and Indigo2;
<em>mipsel</em>: little-endian MIPS machines, Digital DECstations.
</p>
<p>
<em>hppa</em>: Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC machines (712, C3000, L2000, A500).
</p>
<p>
<em>ia64</em>: Intel IA-64 ("Itanium") computers.
</p>
<p>
<em>s390</em>: IBM S/390 mainframe systems.
</p>
<p>
The development of binary distributions of Debian for Sparc64 (UltraSPARC
native) architectures is currently underway.
</p>
<p>
For further information on booting, partitioning your drive, enabling PCMCIA
(PC Card) devices and similar issues please follow the instructions given in
the Installation Manual, which is available from our WWW site at <code><a
href="http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual">http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual</a></code>.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="s-otherdistribs"></a>3.2 How compatible is Debian with other distributions of Linux?</h2>
<p>
Debian developers communicate with other Linux distribution creators in an
effort to maintain binary compatibility across Linux distributions. Most
commercial Linux products run as well under Debian as they do on the system
upon which they were built.
</p>
<p>
Debian GNU/Linux adheres to the <code><a
href="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/">Linux Filesystem Hierarchy
Standard</a></code>. However, there is room for interpretation in some of the
rules within this standard, so there may be slight differences between a Debian
system and other Linux systems.
</p>
<p>
Debian GNU/Linux supports software developed for the <code><a
href="http://www.linuxbase.org/">Linux Standard Base</a></code>. The LSB is a
specification for allowing the same binary package to be used on multiple
distributions. Packages for the Debian Etch release must not conflict with
requirements of the LSB, v1.3. As of this writing, Debian GNU/Linux is not
formally LSB-certified. However, some Debian derived distributions are.
Discussion and coordination of efforts towards ensuring Debian meets the
requirements of the Linux Standard Base is taking place on the <code><a
href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-lsb/">debian-lsb mailing list</a></code>.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="s-otherunices"></a>3.3 How source code compatible is Debian with other Unix systems?</h2>
<p>
For most applications Linux source code is compatible with other Unix systems.
It supports almost everything that is available in System V Unix systems and
the free and commercial BSD-derived systems. However in the Unix business such
claim has nearly no value because there is no way to prove it. In the software
development area complete compatibility is required instead of compatibility in
"about most" cases. So years ago the need for standards arose, and
nowadays POSIX.1 (IEEE Standard 1003.1-1990) is one of the major standards for
source code compatibility in Unix-like operating systems.
</p>
<p>
Linux is intended to adhere to POSIX.1, but the POSIX standards cost real money
and the POSIX.1 (and FIPS 151-2) certification is quite expensive; this made it
more difficult for the Linux developers to work on complete POSIX conformance.
The certification costs make it unlikely that Debian will get an official
conformance certification even if it completely passed the validation suite.
(The validation suite is now freely available, so it is expected that more
people will work on POSIX.1 issues.)
</p>
<p>
Unifix GmbH (Braunschweig, Germany) developed a Linux system that has been
certified to conform to FIPS 151-2 (a superset of POSIX.1). This technology
was available in Unifix' own distribution called Unifix Linux 2.0 and in
Lasermoon's Linux-FT.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="s-otherpackages"></a>3.4 Can I use Debian packages (".deb" files) on my Red Hat/Slackware/... Linux system? Can I use Red Hat packages (".rpm" files) on my Debian GNU/Linux system?</h2>
<p>
Different Linux distributions use different package formats and different
package management programs.
</p>
<dl>
<dt><strong>You probably can:</strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>
A program to unpack a Debian package onto a Linux host that is been built from
a `foreign' distribution is available, and will generally work, in the sense
that files will be unpacked. The converse is probably also true, that is, a
program to unpack a Red Hat or Slackware package on a host that is based on
Debian GNU/Linux will probably succeed in unpacking the package and placing
most files in their intended directories. This is largely a consequence of the
existence (and broad adherence to) the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.
The <code><a href="http://packages.debian.org/alien">Alien</a></code> package
is used to convert between different package formats.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl>
<dt><strong>You probably do not want to:</strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>
Most package managers write administrative files when they are used to unpack
an archive. These administrative files are generally not standardized.
Therefore, the effect of unpacking a Debian package on a `foreign' host will
have unpredictable (certainly not useful) effects on the package manager on
that system. Likewise, utilities from other distributions might succeed in
unpacking their archives on Debian systems, but will probably cause the Debian
package management system to fail when the time comes to upgrade or remove some
packages, or even simply to report exactly what packages are present on a
system.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl>
<dt><strong>A better way:</strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>
The Linux File System Standard (and therefore Debian GNU/Linux) requires that
subdirectories under <samp>/usr/local/</samp> be entirely under the user's
discretion. Therefore, users can unpack `foreign' packages into this
directory, and then manage their configuration, upgrade and removal
individually.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<hr>
<h2><a name="s-libc5"></a>3.5 Is Debian able to run my old libc5 programs?</h2>
<p>
Yes. Just install the required <code>libc5</code> libraries, from the
<samp>oldlibs</samp> section (containing old packages included for
compatibility with older applications).
</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="s-libc5-compile"></a>3.6 Can Debian be used to compile libc5 programs?</h2>
<p>
Yes. Install <code>libc5-altdev</code> and <code>altgcc</code> packages (from
the <samp>oldlibs</samp> section). You can find the appropriate libc5-compiled
<code>gcc</code> and <code>g++</code> in directory
<samp>/usr/i486-linuxlibc1/bin</samp>. Put them in your $PATH variable to get
<code>make</code> and other programs to execute these first.
</p>
<p>
Be aware that libc5 environment isn't fully supported by our other packages
anymore.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="s-non-debian-programs"></a>3.7 How should I install a non-Debian program?</h2>
<p>
Files under the directory <samp>/usr/local/</samp> are not under the control of
the Debian package management system. Therefore, it is good practice to place
the source code for your program in /usr/local/src/. For example, you might
extract the files for a package named "foo.tar" into the directory
<samp>/usr/local/src/foo</samp>. After you compile them, place the binaries in
<samp>/usr/local/bin/</samp>, the libraries in <samp>/usr/local/lib/</samp>,
and the configuration files in <samp>/usr/local/etc/</samp>.
</p>
<p>
If your programs and/or files really must be placed in some other directory,
you could still store them in <samp>/usr/local/</samp>, and build the
appropriate symbolic links from the required location to its location in
<samp>/usr/local/</samp>, e.g., you could make the link
</p>
<pre>
ln -s /usr/local/bin/foo /usr/bin/foo
</pre>
<p>
In any case, if you obtain a package whose copyright allows redistribution, you
should consider making a Debian package of it, and uploading it for the Debian
system. Guidelines for becoming a package developer are included in the Debian
Policy manual (see <a href="ch-support.en.html#s-debiandocs">What other
documentation exists on and for a Debian system?, Section 11.1</a>).
</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="s-termcap"></a>3.8 Why can't I compile programs that require libtermcap?</h2>
<p>
Debian uses the <samp>terminfo</samp> database and the <samp>ncurses</samp>
library of terminal interface routes, rather than the <samp>termcap</samp>
database and the <samp>termcap</samp> library. Users who are compiling
programs that require some knowledge of the terminal interface should replace
references to <samp>libtermcap</samp> with references to
<samp>libncurses</samp>.
</p>
<p>
To support binaries that have already been linked with the <samp>termcap</samp>
library, and for which you do not have the source, Debian provides a package
called <code>termcap-compat</code>. This provides both
<samp>libtermcap.so.2</samp> and <samp>/etc/termcap</samp>. Install this
package if the program fails to run with the error message "can't load
library 'libtermcap.so.2'", or complains about a missing
<samp>/etc/termcap</samp> file.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="s-accelx"></a>3.9 Why can't I install AccelX?</h2>
<p>
AccelX uses the <samp>termcap</samp> library for installation. See <a
href="#s-termcap">Why can't I compile programs that require libtermcap?,
Section 3.8</a> above.
</p>
<hr>
<h2><a name="s-motifnls"></a>3.10 Why do my old XFree 2.1 Motif applications crash?</h2>
<p>
You need to install the <code>motifnls</code> package, which provides the
XFree-2.1 configuration files needed to allow Motif applications compiled under
XFree-2.1 to run under XFree-3.1.
</p>
<p>
Without these files, some Motif applications compiled on other machines (such
as Netscape) may crash when attempting to copy or paste from or to a text
field, and may also exhibit other problems.
</p>
<hr>
<p>
[ <a href="ch-getting.en.html">previous</a> ]
[ <a href="index.en.html#contents">Contents</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-basic_defs.en.html">1</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-getting.en.html">2</a> ]
[ 3 ]
[ <a href="ch-software.en.html">4</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-ftparchives.en.html">5</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-pkg_basics.en.html">6</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-pkgtools.en.html">7</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-uptodate.en.html">8</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-kernel.en.html">9</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-customizing.en.html">10</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-support.en.html">11</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-contributing.en.html">12</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-redistrib.en.html">13</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-nexttime.en.html">14</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-faqinfo.en.html">15</a> ]
[ <a href="ch-software.en.html">next</a> ]
</p>
<hr>
<p>
The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
</p>
<address>
version 3.1.3, 25 April 2006<br>
<br>
Authors are listed at <a href="ch-faqinfo.en.html#s-authors">Debian FAQ Authors</a><br>
<br>
</address>
<hr>
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