The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ - Compatibility issues

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# The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
Chapter 3 - Compatibility issues

## 3.1 On what hardware architectures/systems does Debian GNU/Linux run?

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 `Linux FAQ` for details.

The current Debian GNU/Linux release, 3.0, contains a complete, binary distribution for the following architectures:

i386: 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.

m68k: this covers Amigas and ATARIs having a Motorola 680x0 processor for x>=2; with MMU.

alpha: Compaq/Digital's Alpha systems.

sparc: this covers Sun's SPARC and most UltraSPARC systems.

powerpc: this covers some IBM/Motorola PowerPC machines, including CHRP, PowerMac and PReP machines.

arm: ARM and StrongARM machines.

mips: SGI's big-endian MIPS systems, Indy and Indigo2; mipsel: little-endian MIPS machines, Digital DECstations.

hppa: Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC machines (712, C3000, L2000, A500).

ia64: Intel IA-64 ("Itanium") computers.

s390: IBM S/390 mainframe systems.

The development of binary distributions of Debian for Sparc64 (UltraSPARC native) architectures is currently underway.

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 `http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual`.

## 3.2 How compatible is Debian with other distributions of Linux?

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.

Debian GNU/Linux adheres to the `Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard`. 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.

## 3.3 How source code compatible is Debian with other Unix systems?

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.

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.)

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.

## 3.4 Can I use Debian packages (".deb" files) on my RedHat/Slackware/... Linux system? Can I use RedHat packages (".rpm" files) on my Debian GNU/Linux system?

Different Linux distributions use different package formats and different package management programs.

You probably can:
  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 RedHat 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 `Alien` package is used to convert between different package formats.

You probably do not want to:
  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.

A better way:
  The Linux File System Standard (and therefore Debian GNU/Linux) requires that subdirectories under `/usr/local/` 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.

## 3.5 Is Debian able to run my very old "a.out" programs?

Do you actually still have such a program? :-)

To execute a program whose binary is in `a.out` (i.e., QMAGIC or ZMAGIC) format,

- Make sure your kernel has `a.out` support built into it, either directly (CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT=y) or as a module (CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT=m). (Debian's kernel-image package contains the module `binfmt_aout`.)

  If your kernel supports `a.out` binaries by a module, then be sure that the `binfmt_aout` module is loaded. You can do this at boot time by entering the line `binfmt_aout` into the file `/etc/modules`. You can do it from the command line by executing the command `insmod DIRNAME/binfmt_aout.o` where `DIRNAME` is the name of the directory where the modules that have been built for the version of the kernel now running are stored. On a system with the 2.2.17 version of the kernel, `DIRNAME` is likely to be `/lib/modules/2.2.17/fs/`.

- install the package `libc4`, found in one of the releases prior to release 2.0 (because at that time we removed the package). You might want to look for an old Debian CD-ROM (Debian 1.3.1 still had this package), or see `ftp://archive.debian.org/debian-archive/` on the Internet.

- If the program you want to execute is an `a.out` X client, then install the `xcompat` package (see above for availability).

If you have a commercial application in `a.out` format, now would be a good time to ask them to send you an `ELF` upgrade.

## 3.6 Is Debian able to run my old libc5 programs?

Yes. Just install the required `libc5` libraries, from the `oldlibs` section (containing old packages included for compatibility with older applications).

## 3.7 Can Debian be used to compile libc5 programs?

Yes. Install `libc5-altdev` and `altgcc` packages (from the `oldlibs` section). You can find the appropriate libc5-compiled `gcc` and `g++` in directory `/usr/i486-linuxlibc1/bin`. Put them in your $PATH variable to get `make` and other programs to execute these first.

If you need to compile libc5 X clients, install `xlib6` and `xlib6-altdev` packages.

Be aware that libc5 environment isn't fully supported by our other packages anymore.

## 3.8 How should I install a non-Debian program?

Files under the directory `/usr/local/` 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 `/usr/local/src/foo`. After you compile them, place the binaries in `/usr/local/bin/`, the libraries in `/usr/local/lib/`, and the configuration files in `/usr/local/etc/`.

If your programs and/or files really must be placed in some other directory, you could still store them in `/usr/local/`, and build the appropriate symbolic links from the required location to its location in `/usr/local/`, e.g., you could make the link

         ln -s /usr/local/bin/foo /usr/bin/foo

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 What other documentation exists on and for a Debian system?, Section 11.1).

## 3.9 Why do I get "Can't find libX11.so.6" errors when I try to run `foo`?

This error message could mean that the program is linked against the `libc5` version of the X11 libraries. In this case you need to install the `xlib6` package, from the `oldlibs` section.

You may get similar error messages referring to libXpm.so.4 file, in which case you need to install the libc5 version of the XPM library, from the `xpm4.7` package, also in the `oldlibs` section.

## 3.10 Why can't I compile programs that require libtermcap?

Debian uses the `terminfo` database and the `ncurses` library of terminal interface routes, rather than the `termcap` database and the `termcap` library. Users who are compiling programs that require some knowledge of the terminal interface should replace references to `libtermcap` with references to `libncurses`.

To support binaries that have already been linked with the `termcap` library, and for which you do not have the source, Debian provides a package called `termcap-compat`. This provides both `libtermcap.so.2` and `/etc/termcap`. 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 `/etc/termcap` file.

## 3.11 Why can't I install AccelX?

AccelX uses the `termcap` library for installation. See Why can't I compile programs that require libtermcap?, Section 3.10 above.

## 3.12 Why do my old XFree 2.1 Motif applications crash?

You need to install the `motifnls` 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.

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.

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The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ