Dynebolic & Software packages
Overview You can install software using a variety of pre-made packages into a running dyne:bolic system. Unless the package installs them to a nest they are lost at reboot/shutdown & have to be installed again at next startup. The example we will use is a program called spaghetti, in homage to Jaromil's wonderful cooking.
Supported Formats Dyne:bolic has three formats installed: these are Debian packages (spaghetti.deb), Red Hat packages (spaghetti.rpm) and Slackware packages (spaghetti.tgz). Although these formats are named after their originating distro they are used across multiple distros. Jaromil has stated that in the future he intends to add support for autopackage.
rpm & deb packages At the time of writing (using 2.4.2) both these methods seem to fail. If you have had success with either please consider revising this entry. In the meantime you can convert rpm's or deb packages to Slackware packages using a terminal with the command:
alien -t spaghetti.deb (obviously substituting your package name for spaghetti.deb).
This needs to be done in a writable directory such as your nest. You can then use your Slackware package as detailed below.
Slackware packages You install Slackware packages using a terminal with the command
installpkg spaghetti.tgz (obviously substituting your package name for spaghetti.tgz).
You can browse inside slackware packages using midnight commander (found under the file menu in the menuing system or by typing mc at a terminal). Use it to find where the main program file is: usually they are somewhere in /usr or /usr/local though they have been spotted in the wild in /opt. You then run the program by typing the full path to it
/usr/bin/spaghetti
or by positioning the cursor over it in Midnight Commander & pressing enter.
Slackware packages do not have dependency checking so you may need to check if you need a supporting application by running the program from a terminal & reading the output. If you need to install multiple applications to make something work there is an easy way, create a package bomb. Place all the packages you wish to install in the same directory, navigate to that directory and just type installpkg *.tgz & everything in that directory should install.
Making packages If you compile a program from source you can create a package from it using the application checkinstall - just replace the make install command with checkinstall & this will both install the program & create a package in the source directory for future use.
Packages into modules You can convert a package into a module by following the instructions (http://dev.dynebolic.org/trac.cgi/wiki/DyneModules) for making a module up to the point where you have mounted the module in /opt. Instead of using source code unzip the package (it needs to be in .tgz format) in the modules directory. Following the example you would unzip it in /opt/spaghetti with the command tar -xvvf spaghetti.tgz. You then compress it into a module as per the instructions. This does not always work as the package may be looking for files that are installed somewhere else on your system.