Adding to the software portal

[RyuK]

Is there an easy way to add a package that's already in the repositories into the software portal so it can be reviewed?

[emorrp1]

You can use the mint-make tool to create a .mint file, then email it to clem at root __AT__ linuxmint.com

[nebcanuck]

When I run mint-make under the 64-bit edition of Linux Mint, it creates a folder, not a .mint file.

Are there specific instructions on the use of mint-make somewhere?

[emorrp1]

Perhaps there's a .mint file inside the folder? I'm clutching at straws here, I don't actually know anything about the .mint filetype, anyone else know?

[nebcanuck]

No, a couple text files which look like configs, but basically just hold the values it asked me for and absolutely nothing else.

There's gotta be a trick

[merlwiz79]

mint-make is the command to set up the information.
You can manually edit the text files if you find an error double checking them.
Once you're done with that you run mint-compress FOLDER_NAME to make the actual .mint file.
You need to make sure everything that it needs gets installed.

You could actually make it compile the source of a driver(kernel module), if needed.
I wish I had more time for it, since it would really help people that need to compile from sources.

Make sure to test it with the live cd, if it doesn't work on the live cd it won't work on a clean install.

[nebcanuck]

Hm. Well, I definitely want to be able to help out by packaging newer versions of stuff. I'm still just getting into compiling from source (have done it successfully perhaps a dozen times), but I know even that's better than a lot of people, and I one thing that seems to be asked for is up-to-date software on a stable install (which makes sense, since that's what most Windows users are used to, really).

That being said, there are a few things I'd like to know so that I can make sure I'm doing this .mint thing correctly. First, am I supposed to include some binaries within the .mint file before I compress it? Right now it looks like it's just a set of instructions to install from repositories (sorry if that's a poor understanding of the way it works). Obviously, the goal in packaging new files is to get stuff that's newer than is in the repositories.

Second, I'm running the 64-bit version of mint. Will that impact my ability to make good .mint files for people running the 32-bit version? (I'd be willing to switch if the answer is yes!) For example, when I run checkinstall, is it satisfactory to change the flag to i586 instead of amd 64? Or will it still be a 64-bit package and not run properly on a 32-bit processor even though it's labeled differently?

Thanks ahead of time!

[nebcanuck]

Sorry, but didn't want to let this go, since a couple more items have come up which would be nice to get into the mint portal (like Songbird 1.2). Does no one have any advise on how to package a .mint file? I don't see anything else in this forum, or on the wiki.

[emorrp1]

I'm pretty sure what you've done is right, that the .mint file is just an instruction set of what packages to install, rather than binaries themselves. Hence it also shouldn't matter what architecture. I'd e-mail it to Clem and see, he'll tell you if it needs modifying.