Below are instructions on how to download and install IBM's sametime on a 64-bit Ubuntu:

1. download sametime-setup-linux.zip from

   
   
   

   "http://sametime.dpteruel.es/sametime/network-install/applet/index_en.html?lang=en"

   
   
   

   which will detect your OS and send you the appropriate installation zip file



2. unzip to get an rpm package



3. get "alien" package conversion program, like so:

   
   
   

   
   

   sudo apt-get install alien dpkg-dev debhelper build-essential

   
   




4. try converting the rpm to deb with alien like so:

   
   
   

   
   

   sudo alien --scripts --verbose sametime-connect-8.5.2-20110516.2011.i586.rpm

   
   

   
   
   

   that didn't work for me, if it works for you then you will get a deb package
   and you can install it the usual way.




5. I got an error saying

   
   
   

   
   

   the package is for architecture i386 ; the package cannot be built on this system

   
   

   
   
   

   my system is an amd64 (aka x64) architecture.
   So I found instructions here

   
   
   

   http://www.matt-helps.com/using-alien-to-convert-rpm-packages-to-lpia-deb/

   
   
   

   which led me to run the following:

   
   
   

   
   

   sudo alien --verbose -g sametime-connect-8.5.2-20110516.2011.i586.rpm

   
   
   

   cd sametime-connect-8.5.2

   
   
   

   sudo ./debian/rules binary

   
   

Note: the last command is supposed to generate a debian package but it didn't,
it just copied stuff around. You can also modify the debian/control file and change the target architecture before running ./debian/rules

1. since I still had no debian package and I noticed that the sametime files are all in ./opt/ibm/ and one executable in ./usr/bin

   
   
   

   I simply moved them as follows:

   
   
   

   
   

   mv ./opt/ibm /opt/.

   
   
   

   mv ./usr/bin/sametime-connect /usr/bin/.

   
   




2. I ran /usr/bin/sametime-connect and voilà it worked, it asked me for the license agreement and opened the sametime.