How to update dynagen in Ubuntu using the rpm file

First check if the update is available through the Synaptic Package Manager. If it's there then select and proceed with the update. Nothing different here.

At the time of writing, the latest version found through the official Ubuntu repositories is 0.10.1, which is what i had installed too:

xxx@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ dynagen --version
dynagen 0.10.1.090807

But there are many cases that you won't find it in Synaptic, especially the beta versions. So go to dynagen site and select one of the following:

If you click on the "Interim Builds" link, you'll see a local page with all the current beta/alpha versions, if there are any. Download the latest rpm file.

If you click on the "Download" link, you'll be directed to Sourceforge.net for the official stable builds where you'll have to download the latest rpm file.

Usually, new beta versions are appearing in the "Interim Builds" section and when after a while they become stable, they are moved to the "Download" section.

Latest version at the time of writing is 0.11.0 (which is not available through synaptic). So proceed and download "dynagen-0.11.0-1.fc9.noarch.rpm" from sourceforge.net in a local directory.

In order to install it, you must first convert it from rpm to deb, using the alien program. So get the alien program through Synaptic or apt-get.

xxx@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo apt-get install alien

However, you should keep in mind what the alien man page says:

"alien should not be used to replace important system packages, like init, libc, or other things that are essential for the functioning of your system. Many of these packages are set up differently by the different distributions, and packages from the different distributions cannot be used interchangeably. In general, if you can't remove a package without breaking your system, don't try to replace it with an alien version."

Then move to the directory where you saved the latest dynagen rpm and run:

xxx@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo alien -k dynagen-0.11.0-1.fc9.noarch.rpm
dynagen_0.11.0-1.fc9_all.deb generated

-k is used so the version number is not increased. Alien by default increases it.

Now you have a deb package. You can use deb-gview (get it through synaptic/apt-get) in order to view its contents (plus the install locations).

xxx@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ deb-gview dynagen_0.11.0-1.fc9_all.deb

Finally, install it using dpkg:

xxx@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo dpkg -i dynagen_0.11.0-1.fc9_all.deb
Selecting previously deselected package dynagen.
(Reading database ... 127883 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking dynagen (from dynagen_0.11.0-1.fc9_all.deb) ...
Setting up dynagen (0.11.0-1.fc9) ...

And check its new version after it has been installed:

xxx@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ dynagen --version
dynagen 0.11.0

You can also use the following if you want to automatically install the package after converting it:

xxx@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo alien -i -k dynagen-0.11.0-1.fc9.noarch.rpm