How do I fix a bad commercial deb package?

Question

The Citrix ICA Client (Receiver) 13 .deb package has some known issues. How do I make changes to the package? I need to remove some dependencies and change the install script.

Ref: How do I install Citrix ICA Client (Receiver) 13 on Debian 64-bit Linux?

Answer 1

I am answering this question myself because others may find this information useful. This Q&A was inspired about another one: How do I install Citrix ICA Client (Receiver) 13 on Debian 64-bit Linux?

1. Create a temp directory and copy the .deb file to it.
2. Extract the .deb file: ar vx archive.deb
3. Three files will appear:
   • debian-binary: Do not touch
   • control.tar.gz: Config and scripts to install and uninstall
     • This file may have a different extension, depending on the compression format used.
   • data.tar.gz: Files to be installed
     • This file may have a different extension, depending on the compression format used.

Both *.tar.gz files may different extensions, depending on the compression format used. The .deb format supports a few different ones. Also both *.tar.gz files are tarbombs, so all the files will explode to the same path. Better to create a temp directory, copy, then extract.

File control.tar.gz has two files good for hacking:

• control: Contains package dependency list. You can add/remove dependencies.
• postinst: Contains the post-installation script. You can add/remove commands.

Recreate the *.tar.gz files as: tar -czvf control.tar.gz * or (data.tar.gz)

Finally, create a new archive. Order is very important here: ar rv my_new_package.deb debian-binary control.tar.gz data.tar.gz

You can try your new package with these commands:

• Uninstall existing package: apt-get remove $package_name
  • ... where $package_name is the name of your package, e.g., icaclient
• Install new package: dpkg --install my_new_package.deb

Ref: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Debian-Binary-Package-Building-HOWTO/