Failure in moz while Building OpenOffice m196 on fc6 with gcc 4.1.x

Failure in moz while Building OpenOffice m196 on fc6 with gcc 4.1.x.

Error trace is :
mimemult.cpp:55: warning: missing braces around initializer for ‘MimeContainerClass’
mimemult.cpp:55: warning: missing braces around initializer for ‘MimeObjectClass’
mimeeobj.h:57: error: previous declaration of ‘MimeExternalObjectClass mimeExternalObjectClass’ with ‘C++’ linkage
mimemult.cpp:76: error: conflicts with new declaration with ‘C’ linkage
gmake[4]: *** [mimemult.o] Error 1
gmake[4]: Leaving directory `/home/vijay/ooo_SRC680_m196_src/moz/unxlngi6.pro/misc/build/mozilla/mailnews/mime/src'
gmake[3]: *** [libs] Error 2
gmake[3]: Leaving directory `/home/vijay/ooo_SRC680_m196_src/moz/unxlngi6.pro/misc/build/mozilla/mailnews/mime'
gmake[2]: *** [libs] Error 2
gmake[2]: Leaving directory `/home/vijay/ooo_SRC680_m196_src/moz/unxlngi6.pro/misc/build/mozilla/mailnews'
gmake[1]: *** [tier_97] Error 2
gmake[1]: Leaving directory `/home/vijay/ooo_SRC680_m196_src/moz/unxlngi6.pro/misc/build/mozilla'
make: *** [default] Error 2
dmake: Error code 2, while making './unxlngi6.pro/misc/build/so_built_ooo_mozab'
'---* tg_merge.mk *---'
ERROR: Error 65280 occurred while making /home/vijay/ooo_SRC680_m196_src/moz

The problem is with the mozilla 1.7.5 source which is fixed in mozilla 1.8.
http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=66906
Link shows the patch id=39575 which when applied fixes the broken build.

cheers, make world open.

From BarCamp Bangalore

Sharing space with folks here at barcamp bangalore 2.0 at thoughtworks india and planning for the sessions ahead. Having more scoop of enthusiasm or may be i did not want to miss this golden opportunity , i came a lot early and became the first one to put up my name here to register.
But.. uhhhh i am not the only one who is so excited about the event. I see a lot of folks here already as early as 8.30 am in the morning.
Will come back and put up more interesting stuff here....

How to enable Wireless Lan on [wifi] FC-6 .

Bingo!!! Fedora Core 6 comes with build-in support for ipw2200 drivers and ieee80211 modules. The FC6 kernel 2.6.18-1.2849.fc6 includes version 1.1.2 of the ipw2200 driver. So one needn't worry about the wifi on FC6 and don't need to use windows native driver using ndiswrapper.
FC6 needs only ipw2200-firmware [firmware v3.0], which is not shipped with FC6 because firmware is proprietary.

*** Steps to enable wifi on IBM T43

1. Download ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz from
http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php

2. Unarchive ipw2200-fw to /lib/firmware

3. reload ipw2200 $/sbin/modprobe -r ipw2200
restart ipw2200 $/sbin/modprobe ipw2200
OR reboot the machine.

Look for the dmesg log as root
$ dmesg | grep ipw2200
Output:

ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.2.0dmq
ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
ipw2200: Detected geography ZZM (11 802.11bg channels, 0 802.11a channels)

$system-config-network and configure the
wireless card.



*** Steps to enable wifi on HP nx6110 using ndiswrapper on fedora core 6.

1. Ensure livna repo is added to the yum repos.

2. $yum install ipw2200-firmware

3. $yum install ndiswrapper

4. $yum install cabextract
5. Download HP windows native driver SP30290.exe

6. Unpack the SP30290.exe to some directory. To do so run
$ cabextract SP30290.exe

7. From the directory where the SP30290.exe file is extracted. As super user(root) run
$ /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5a.inf

8. $ /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -m
It will add an alias to /etc/modprobe.conf.
Alias means it will add a line "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" at the end of /etc/modprobe.conf .
If above command fails, manually add "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.conf.

9. Blacklist bcm43xx,
To do this add line blacklist bcm43xx to the end of file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist .

10. Now you can reboot to have it activated,
or you can run
$ depmod -a
$ modprobe ndiswrapper

Use the System -> Administration -> Network application to create a new device for the wlan0 ndiswrapper device and configure as per the options there.

cheers,
make world open.

VMware server on fedora core 6

Vmware server on fedora core 6 is having problem while configuring it with vmware-config.pl. The error trace is:

/tmp/vmware-config1/vmnet-only/procfs.c:33:26: error: linux/config.h: No such file or directory
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config1/vmnet-only/procfs.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config1/vmnet-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i686'
make: *** [vmnet.ko] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmnet-only'
Unable to build the vmnet module.

The problem as evident from the trace is because of the missing config.h file at this location

/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i686/include/linux/config.h

Fix for the problem is to create an empty config.h file at this location /usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i686/include/linux/.

$ touch /usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i686/include/linux/config.h
will do the magic.

cheers, make world open...

Issue building subversion 1.3.0 on sles9

Building subversion with the ssl support on sles9 box fails at the time of configure itself with the following error messages.
$./configure --with-ssl

.......
.....
...
checking for library containing RSA_new... not found
configure: error: could not find library containing RSA_new
configure failed for neon

The problem is either with the installed location of the openssl library or it might be possible that openssl-devel is not installed on the box.

Look for the openssl-devel rpm and if it is installed in the system then one have to identify the exact location of the openssl library and can pass the same to the configure script like...
$./configure --with-ssl --with-libs=/usr/local/ssl ...

Problem resolved. :-)

cheers, make world open.

Xorg startx problem

The problem is with starting the X windows on the FC-4 box. When doing "startx" at the command prompt with root user, "startx" is starting successful session of X window. It is failing for all the user other than root with the following error message.

Cannot move old log file ("/var/log/Xorg.0.log" to "/var/log/Xorg.0.log.old"
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at
http://wiki.X.Org for help.

The problem is with the permissions on /usr/X11R6/bin/Xorg

Doing this $ chmod u+s /usr/X11R6/bin/Xorg
and confirming /usr/X11R6/bin/Xorg file
owner as root.root will do the trick.

Now... X windows is running great.

cheers,
make world open...

Pishing.... online identity theft!!!

TBD

Extracting mp3 from audio CD.

Some of the tools on Linux which can help in extracting audio CD's.

cdparanoia:

cdparanoia retrieves audio tracks from CDDA capable CDROM drives. The data can be saved to a file or directed to standard output in WAV, AIFF, AIFF-C or raw format. Most ATAPI, SCSI and several proprietary CDROM drive makes are supported; cdparanoia can determine if the target drive is CDDA capable.
In addition to simple reading, cdparanoia adds extra-robust data verification, synchronization, error handling and scratch reconstruction capability.

$cdparanoia -B -- 1-5
It will extract audios in wav format from track one to five. This is the best tool when one needs to extract CD which is worn out.

Sound Juicer:

Sound Juicer is a gtk based application and comes by default with gnome environment. By default sound juicer is not capable of extracting CD in mp3's format. In sound juicer preferences mp3 radio button is there but it will not work by default.
Sound Juicer uses the gstreamer framework as its backend. To enable extracting to mp3 we need to add mp3 encoding support to gstreamer. This is easily done by installing gstreamer-plugins-mp3 package from rpm.livna.org.

$yum install gstreamer-plugins-mp3

This will take care of all the necessary dependency for gstreamer-plugins-mp3 and install.

cheers... make world open.

aye dil hain muskil....

"Aye dil hain muskil jeena yahan, zara hatke zara bachke ye hain bambai meri jaan" this verses from Mazrooh Sultanpuri is getting it's literal meaning now. Mumbai is teaching the world a new way of fighting the menace of terrorism.
Mumbaikars have proved their mettle that they are not going to be defeated by the handful of craps. They are giving a new dimension to the philosophy of life and death, writing a new chapter of humanity.
Where can we see... Four badly injured carrying an almost dead person to hospital and that too with all care to make him live. Those crappy terrorists are denied success. This all can happen in Mumbai... and we here with full throat can proudly say "salaam mumbai"

...

There is a thin line between success and failure...

Soooooo... at last Italy won the much coveted league of the world soccer and that too with a very thin line difference. Success is always there in the middle of that proportion and it cheats someone to bestow others.
France was six inches behind their success and this proved a really huge gap for them.
Well... no matter how one gets to that dais, world is with the people out there.
kudos to them !!!

firefox crashes!!!

I updated firefox to 1.5.0.4 on my fedora core box. To my surprise firefox is crashing with the following error message.


/usr/local/firefox/firefox-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory


I checked in the /usr/lib directory and found that the concerned library is not there. It is really frustrating to know that firefox 1.5.0.4 will not work with the latest libstdc++ library.

With some googling and my friend Subhash's advice of installing backward compatible libstdc++ library rpm, problem is sorted out and now firefox is working as usual. :-)

$ yum install compat-libstdc
This is the command which did trick for me.


cheers,
make world open

How to install PPTP Client on Fedora Core 3 system

How to install pptp Client on Fedora Core 3 link will guide one through the entire process of achieving this goal.

cheers, make word open.

What is portage ?

Portage is the heart of Gentoo Linux, and performs many key functions. For one, Portage is the software distribution system for Gentoo Linux. To get the latest software for Gentoo Linux,
you type one command: emerge --sync. This command tells Portage to update your local "Portage tree" over the Internet. Local Portage tree contains a complete collection of scripts(ebuild scripts) that can be used by Portage to create and install the latest Gentoo packages. Currently, gentoo have more than 10000 packages in Portage tree, with updates and new ones being added all the time.

Portage is also a package building and installation system. When one wants to install a package, just type emerge packagename, at which point Portage automatically builds a custom version of the package with exact specifications, optimizing it for the hardware and ensuring that the optional features in the package that one wants are enabled -- and those one don't want aren't.

Portage also keeps one's system up-to-date. Typing emerge -u world -- one command -- will ensure that all the packages that one wants on his system are updated automatically.

cheers, make world open.

"Thank you sir, you have made a wonderful difference to our life"

Yes... i got it. This is what i was searching when i left NCST and now i am able to get answers to my uneasiness which i had experienced.

Today after reading this blog post my memories goes back to the day when i first stepped in NCST with hopes and stars in my eyes. That was the day, i could have never thought of being to this present position but i am here and it is just because of the culture what this post is advocating about.

I am not the only one... i am one among many... who discounted their past and started afresh to get in to an entirely different carrier and the most surprising part of it is that we excelled with flying colors. I agree we owe our achievements to this wonderful place.

People like us is having more NCST in their blood, as along with being a student had the privilege of being staff also. And that gives us more salt and more layers of NCST culture.

I confess... what i am today is just because i was a part of this great and wonderful place.

Hat's off...

Xen hypervisor 3.0

Needs 2.6.16 host kernel to make dom0 up. Still xen is hanging at starting harware of udev.
Xen

Php5 configure error on suse91

While building php5 on suse91, i was getting configure error as...

checking if your cpp allows macro usage in include lines... yes
checking for IMAP support... yes
checking for IMAP Kerberos support... no
checking for IMAP SSL support... yes
checking for pam_start in -lpam... no
checking for crypt in -lcrypt... yes
checking whether build with IMAP works... no
configure: error: build test failed. Please check the config.log for details.

config.log looks like this...

configure:46778: gcc -o conftest -I/usr/include -g -O2 -L/usr/lib -lpthread -Wl,-rpath,/opt/dev/lib -L/opt/dev/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/ssl/lib -L/usr/ssl/lib conftest.c -lpam -lgmp -lgdbm -lcurl -lz -lresolv -lm -ldl -lnsl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lcurl -lz -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl 1>&5
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-suse-linux/3.3.3/../../../../i586-suse-linux/bin/ld: cannot find -lpam
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
configure: failed program was:
#line 46767 "configure"
#include "confdefs.h"

configure:48289: gcc -o conftest -I/usr/include -g -O2 -L/usr/lib -lpthread -Wl,-rpath,/opt/dev/lib -L/opt/dev/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/ssl/lib -L/usr/ssl/lib -Wl,-rpath,/opt/cm-cvsroot/257/oss/comp/web/php5/src/imap-tmp/imap-2002e/c-client -L/opt/cm-cvsroot/257/oss/comp/web/php5/src/imap-tmp/imap-2002e/c-client
-lcrypt -lgmp -lgdbm -lcurl -lz -lresolv -lm -ldl -lnsl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lcurl -lz -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lssl -lcrypto -ldl 1>&5
/tmp/cco9oumL.o(.text+0xf9): In function `main':
/opt/cm-cvsroot/257/oss/comp/web/php5/src/configure:48283: undefined reference to `auth_gssapi_valid'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
configure: failed program was:
#line 48262 "configure"

configure:48316: checking whether build with IMAP works
configure:48354: gcc -o conftest -I/usr/include -g -O2 -L/usr/lib -lpthread -Wl,-rpath,/opt/dev/lib -L/opt/dev/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/ssl/lib -L/usr/ssl/lib -L/opt/cm-cvsroot/257/oss/comp/web/php5/src/imap-tmp/imap-2002e/c-client conftest.c -lc-client -lcrypt -lgmp -lgdbm -lcurl -lz -lresolv -lm -ldl -lnsl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lcurl -lz -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lssl -lcrypto -ldl 1>&5
undefined reference to `pam_end'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
configure: failed program was:
#line 48327 "configure"
#include "confdefs.h"

solution:
The error is because of some missing pam modules and pam library. So, I installed pam-devel-0.77-221.i586.rpm and again fired configure script.Configure and make worked sucessfully.

cheers, make world open.

Emotion matters...

Emotion matters in the world of technology and innovations. I am in close vicinity of many open source enthusiasts and evangelist. The emotion factor is really driving them and making way for their success.
I was really relentless to put emotions in my work but i got to know now... it is helping and making life more productive.
I had numerous opportunity to hear and talk to my CTO Murugan Pal founder of SpikeSource and serious opensource evangelist. I was really-really surprised to find great deal of emotion factor in his talks and works. I was forced to think million times that how can a person of his stature can be so emotional and at the same time great story of success. But it is there and things are really in shape for the man. One can easily identify the amount of emotion he puts in his talks and efforts.
Another great guy i came across is R.K.V.S Raman the underestimated scientist at C-DAC, Bangalore and again the emotion matters in his work and efforts. He really puts his heart out in every endeavors he indulges in and make himself available to the world in that crude fashion itself without any hiccups.
Conclusively i am shouting from the rooftop that emotion matters in innovation and efforts...

cheers, make world open.

OpenOffice in 7 indian language.

Uhhhhh... mind blowing work for the indic community and people out there who wants to work in their own regional languages. Great kudos to all of them who is behind this herculean task and who made this possible. This is really a great day for indic computing.
Read More...
All the seven language package can be downloadable from this link.
Download OpenOffice-2 indic language packs

cheers, make world open.

Compile a Kernel

How to compile the Linux kernel

When I joined C-DAC(Formerly NCST) Bangalore, as a
technical associate(TA) , beside learning about the project,
which I'm part of, the task assigned to me was to write a
loadable kernel module(LKM). As a part of that task, I
wanted to upgrade the kernel on my machine to the latest
one. I started to look around for the material and books for
help. In all these efforts Google(http://www.google.com)
played an important role; also our library always proves to
be one of the best for that matter. After some early work I
could find out following steps to compile the linux kernel

1 Download the Linux kernel from http://www.kernel.org

2 Untar the tarball using either "tar -xzf" for ".tgz"
file or "tar -xjf" command for ".tar.bz2" file.

3 Go the kernel directory

4 make [config/menuconfig/defconfig/xconfig] This will
invoke either an editor to let you configure kernel
parameters or may ask questions in an interactive mode
in case of "make config". At the end of configuration
you'll have ".config" file written in the same direc-
tory. It's not reccomended you to edit this file.

5 make bzImage: This will start the actual compilation
process and at the end of this step you'll have
"vmlinuz" file ready, which is your kernel image.

6 make modules: This will compile the loadable kernel
modules source files to generate the kernel object(.ko)
files in case of Linux kernel-2.6.x and object(.o)
files for the kernels prior to kernel-2.6.x

7 make modules_install: This command needs the root priv-
ileges, so you gotta do the root login before executing
this command. As this command will create the directory
"linux-" under "/lib/modules" and copy
all the object files and dirvers generated so far in
this directory.

8 make install: This command will make the necessary
changes in the boot loader configuration file so that,
when you reboot the system you'll see the option to
boot into this freshly compiled Linux kernel.

Note:

. Always keep a running kernel image untouched, so in
case if new kernel image is unable to boot, you can
always boot with the old kernel and do the nessary
changes.

. Also do not forget to read the kernel documentation.

Courtsey: Prasad J Pandit

SuSe 9.1 blues

Uhhhh... it is now becoming really frustating for me to work on SuSe. I am trying since a couple of days to figure out the problem in automount and still not able to get in to it.
I don't understand why this is a problem as it is working for fc3,rhel3,rhel4 and when it comes to SuSe it just stops responding.

Scenario is:

* NIS server is running on rhel4 and giving yp mappings.

* SuSe machine works for NIS authentication but doesn't switch to home directory as home directory is not automounted.

* I can see all the mapping from the SuSe machine with $ypcat -kt auto.home

* NIS and NFS server is working fine for all the other system except SuSe.

* I think the problem might be with the difference in flavors of Linux being used Server on rhel4 and client is on SuSe.

Well i am still struggling with it and will find the solution OR workaround.

How to make an ISO

To make an ISO from CD/DVD.
Place the media in the drive and do not mount it. If it automounts, unmount it.

commands are as follows:

$ dd if=/dev/dvd of=dvd.iso # for dvd
$ dd if=/dev/cdrom of=cd.iso # for cdrom
$ dd if=/dev/scd0 of=cd.iso # if cdrom is scsi

To make an ISO from files on hard drive.
Create a directory which holds the files.
Then use the mkisofs command.

$ mkisofs -o /tmp/cd.iso /tmp/directory/

This results in a file called cd.iso in folder /tmp which contains all the files and directories in /tmp/directory/.

For more info, see the man pages for mkisofs, losetup, and dd, or see the CD-Writing-HOWTO at http://www.tldp.org.

If one wants to create an ISO images of a CD using Windows, Cygwin has a dd command that will work. Since dd is not specific to CDs, it will also create disk images of floppies, hard drives, zip drives, etc.

Courtsey: http://www.granneman.com/techinfo/linux/burningcds/makeanisoimage.htm

enjoy...

How to configure/enable wireless LAN(wifi) working on Fedora Core-3 for compaq nx6110 laptop.

Fedora core 3 kernel[2.6.9] which is shipped with the distro doesn't support the wireless driver and framework which i am going to talk about. The steps are here...

1. Update the default fc-3 kernel or update the complete system. Depends upon your choice, i did a complete update of the system.

$ yum update

It will take entire night to update the system(depends upon network speed.)

Kernel got upgraded to 2.6.12-1.1381_FC3.

2. Add livna yum repo. If having this repo skip this step. Otherwise
as a super user

$ vi /etc/yum.repos.d/livna.repo

Add these lines to the file created:

###############
## Livna.org ##
###############

[livna-stable]
name=Livna.org - Fedora Compatible Packages (stable)
baseurl=http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.stable
http://livna.cat.pdx.edu/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.stable
#gpgcheck=1

[livna-unstable]
name=Livna.org - Fedora Compatible Packages (unstable)
baseurl=http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.unstable
http://livna.cat.pdx.edu/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.unstable
#gpgcheck=1

[livna-testing]
name=Livna.org - Fedora Compatible Packages (testing)
baseurl=http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.testing
http://livna.cat.pdx.edu/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.testing
#gpgcheck=1

3. $ yum install ipw2200-firmware

4. $ yum install kernel-module-ndiswrapper-2.6.12-1.1381_FC3

It will bring the dependency of ndiswrapper and installs with this kernel module.

5. $ yum install cabextract

6. download the HP driver SP30290.exe

7. Unpack the SP30290.exe to some directory. To do so run
$ cabextract SP30290.exe

8. From the directory where the SP30290.exe file is extracted run
$ /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5a.inf

9. $ /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -m
It will add an alias to /etc/modprobe.conf

Now you can reboot to have it activated,
or you can run
$ depmod -a
$ modprobe ndiswrapper

Use the Desktop -> System Settings -> Network application to create a new device for the wlan0 ndiswrapper device and configure as per the options there.

cheers... make world open.

OpenOffice and Java connectivity on Ubuntu breezy badger(5.10)

OpenOffice that come pre-installed with Ubuntu cannot detect any Java except gcj from FSF . If you want it to detect any other java, one will have to follow instructions given at

http://www.ncode.ch/?item=papers&id=oojvm

Before that one should have to remove .openoffice.org2 directory from $HOME

---
cheers... make world open.

How to build an RPM

The basic procedure to build an RPM is as follows:

* Get the source code you are building the RPM for to build on your system.

* Make a patch of any changes you had to make to the sources to get them to build properly.

* Make a spec file for the package.

* Make sure everything is in its proper place.

* Build the package using RPM.

Under normal operation, RPM builds both binary and source packages.

One of the most typical and important task is to make the spec file.
Still i am collecting information about the spec file and in next post i will be writing about it and make a sample spec file.

enjoy... make world open.

Steve Job Words...

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

Useful tips from Ain Vagula for updating UI strings to newer version of OpenOffice.

Following steps are needed when migrating to UI strings with no duplicates:

- install updated toolkit

- generate sdf file from your existing translated or half-translated po-s with new toolkit
(to avoid english strings in untranslated entries)

- backup old po-s somewhere

- generate new set of po-files from just generated sdf-file for your language

- update generated po-files with latest pot-files. Now every duplicated string in
one file has unique identifier, but string itself is translated as it was in
your old po-file.

Note that:

- When you do not regenerate po files, all duplicate entries will be untranslated.

- When you use sdf file, generated with old toolkit, for regenerating,untranslated
entries will be filled with english strings

thanks Ain as these steps are working really fine for me :-)).

How to extract files from rpm and deb packages

* rpm package can be extracted by issuing this command at the command line.

$rpm2cpio {rpm-package name} | cpio -idv

* deb packages can be extracted by issuing this command at the command line.

$dpkg-deb -x {deb-package name} {target directory}

Enjoy..