Or, how to re-build a Debian package
The Phion VPN package has a version string which isn't compatible with the latest APT system, you'll find that Debian and derivatives like Ubuntu will complain about the version string being illegal and will refuse to install the package:
dpkg: error processing /tmp/v/phionVPN-R8-SP2.deb (--install):
parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/control' near line 2 package 'phionvpn':
error in Version string 'R8-SP2': version number does not start with digit
Here is how you can fix this so that the package will install on your your system.
$ mkdir -p /tmp/vpn/debian
$ dpkg -x phionVPN-R8-SP2.deb /tmp/vpn/debian
$ mkdir -p /tmp/vpn/debian/DEBIAN
$ dpkg -e phionVPN-R8-SP2.deb /tmp/vpn/debian/DEBIAN
Now, let's change the version string:
$ vi /tmp/vpn/debian/DEBIAN/control
Change from:
Version: R8-SP2
to:
Version: 8-SP2
Now, let's re-build the package:
$ cd /tmp/vpn
$ dpkg-deb --build debian
$ mv debian.deb phionvpn_8-SP2.deb
That's it, you can now install the package successfully:
# dpkg -i /tmp/vpn/phionvpn_8-SP2.deb
