can you write a installer package to replace a file that belongs to /usr/share/ folder? and if so how would you write it because ive looked around but i am not an avid linux user and i could use some help.

the point of the installer would to be to replace a wad file for lxdoom without having to deal with possibly bricking my 770

Hi and welcome.

One note first: please enter more descriptive titles
I have no experience writing installer package files, but it should be relatively easy to write a shell script to do just that; perhaps even take a backup of the original files first. In this scenario, I would definitely suggest such a script. Or you could clone your OS to MMC, boot off the MMC and then never have to worry about messing it up!

i was just thinking that because packages are allowed to enter and leave things in the user folder that they would easily be able to do the replacement, but i still need help actually writing the deb file.

however that still requires root access, thus possibly turning my 770 into a brick

What do you mean by user folder? /home/user/ ?

If so, it's considered bad form to write/remove/alter files in the home directories.

I wouldn't worry about turning your 770 into a brick, it's certainly not easy to do.

You'd be far better off just enabling R&D mode, then do "sudo gainroot" and cp the file from your memory card to the appropriate location.

Unless there's some reason to use a deb other than worrying about potentially bricking the device...?

i was going to use the becomeroot package and all i keep seeing is this may brick your device, how exactly would that happen? and how often do you see a case of it happening?
becomeroot package

As far as I understand (I have an N800, not a 770), the main concern with 'becomeroot' is that the user (you in this case) might delete a critical file or erase the built-in flash. Installing becomeroot, moving .wad file around then logging out of the root account isn't any more dangerous (AFAIK) than developing a complicated installer (that's running as root) to do the same thing.
Someone who has a 770 can correct me if I'm missing something...

-John

Go ahead and do it. Even if you "brick" your device by deleting something important (or rm -rf /), it can be reflashed without any troubles. So not actually a brick.

There were some warnings associated with setting the R&D flag, but this was because Nokia were having screen problems (WSOD) and they would tend to fail when you reboot (which you have to do to enable R&D mode, and probably do more often if you're hacking and have enabled it), the WSOD isn't caused by the R&D mode.

There's a relatively easy way to create a debian package which would do what you want.

- Install pypackager
- Create a fake usr/share folder somewhere, e.g. /home/user/test/usr/share
- Install your file(s) there, in the right place
- Start pypackager, tell it where your fake tree is, e.g. /home/user/test
- It'll create a debian package for you which, when installed, will install in /usr/share