First, create a folder called data, then make a folder inside called DEBIAN.

Insided DEBIAN you’ll have to make a text file called control, no extension, which will hold the info of your package. Here’s a small template for an iPhone OS package:

The only field you should not change is Architecture.

Now, inside data, put the files to be installed in an absolute path.

For example, if your files go inside /Applications/YourApp.app, create a folder called Applications, inside it create a folder called YourApp.app and inside it put the files.

Another example, if your files go into /var/mobile/Library/App, create a folder called var, inside that one a folder called mobile, inside that one a folder called Library, inside that one called App and inside that one put your files.

Easy enough I think.

Now, open a terminal and point it to where your data folder is.

Then execute this command, replacing PackageName.deb with the name you want the package to have:

The result will be a deb file in the same folder you are standing in.

That’s for a simple package. Another thing you can do is add bash scripts to be executed before/after the package is installed/removed.

This is as simple as adding a plain text file called preinst/postinst for pre and post install scripts and prerm/postrm for pre and post removal to the DEBIAN folder.

This can be used, for example to remove any settings saved by your app.

Another interesting field you can add to your control file is Depends: anotherPackage (>= 1.0), this tells dpkg that your package depends on anotherPackage, and that it should be at least version 1.0. If you are installing it via terminal, it will fail to install if the needed package is not installed. If you are using apt, like Cydia, it will try to install the required package.

If you are making a theme, for example, you might want your package to depend on Winterboard.

For more info about the control files: LINK.

It’s really easy, what you need is the iPhone SDK 3.0 dmg and the 3.0/3.0.1 firmware and follow the instructions on their googlecode, and I got it working really fast.

Please note that I haven’t tested it yet, I just successfully built it.

Click here to go to the instructions

• Linux, I have Ubuntu 9.04
• The Toolchain 2.0 with the latest headers, on Linux.
• Saurik’s ldid (on Linux and on the iPhone, in case you have trouble with any of them).
• sudo (you’ll need to install this on the iPhone, on linux it comes by default)*

Also, I use emacs to write my code, it has a very nice auto formatting for code, supports a lot of languages, and has a lot of shortcuts. You don’t need it at all, but I love it . The only thing is that it goes crazy when using .h files and setting @property’s, so for modifying I use nano.

*You’ll need to add mobile to the list of users who can use sudo. To do this, log in as super user, and then use the command visudo:

Then scroll down to where it says

And, below, add the same line but with mobile instead of root:

I just did a clean install of Ubuntu 9.04 RC after destroying Debian by adding an Ubuntu Source and updating everything (not good), so I’m about to build the toolchain again.

Since my blog is heading to iPhone/Pod development, I think this is a good start

I’ve been using this to build SBSettings toggles (will post a template and a tut later) and I’ve had no problems, but I haven’t tested it too much.

(BTW, I got the instructions from here and enhanced them a _little_ bit)

Building Toolchain

First thing you’ll want to do is go HERE, go to the Download sections, connect to the FTP as it says there.

Once there, go to “iPhone Toolchain VMWare Image/V3/” and download UpgradeToolchain2.tgz. Download it to your home (~/)

While it’s downloading, run this command to install the building tools:

Now go to /usr and unpack the toolchain

Now move to the toolchain directory and run the install script:

Now you need to add the gcc compiler to /usr/bin, the way I did it was to open two sudo windows and add a link:

That will open a nautilus window as root, do it twice. With one, go to /usr/toolchain2/pre/bin and with the other one go to /usr/bin. On the first one, right click arm-apple-darwin9-gcc and select “Make Link”, then copy that link to the second window, and remove the “Link to..” from the name.

Next you’ll need to make a link to /usr/toolchain2/sys/usr/include on /var, do the same as above.

And finally, a link to /usr/toolchain2/sys/System on /