rhubarbguy, I got a hold of rpm2cpio.pl and got the same error you did. wget 'http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0210.2/att-0093/01-rpm2cpio' You might consider getting this little python script that does the same thing. https://github.com/ruda/rpm2cpio Lightweight implementation of rpm2cpio written in Python. The script: wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ruda/rpm2cpio/master/rpm2cpio.py I see it includes the xz compression which MIGHT be the issue with the vivaldi rpm. ..... While looking into this, I discovered that the 7zip program can read rpm files! Cool. http://manutechie.blogspot.com/2013/08/extract-rpmjartariso-in-windows-7.html /tmp> 7z l vivaldi-stable-1.0.435.42-1.x86_64.rpm 7-Zip [64] 9.20 Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov 2010-11-18 p7zip Version 9.20 (locale=en_US.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,4 CPUs) Listing archive: vivaldi-stable-1.0.435.42-1.x86_64.rpm -- Path = vivaldi-stable-1.0.435.42-1.x86_64.rpm Type = Rpm ---- Size = 45061100 -- Path = vivaldi-stable-1.0.435.42-1.x86_64.cpio.lzma Type = xz Method = LZMA2:26 SHA256 Date Time Attr Size Compressed Name ------------------- ----- ------------ ------------ ------------------------ ..... 170081620 45061100 vivaldi-stable-1.0.435.42-1.x86_64.cpio ------------------- ----- ------------ ------------ ------------------------ 170081620 45061100 1 files, 0 folders And sure enough, it's an xz file with LZMA and an SHA256 signature. Reading the python and perl and the shell (from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18787375/how-do-i-extract-the-contents-of-an-rpm ) are enlightening about the contents of the RPM file. Fun times... :-) Ger On Sat, 9 Apr 2016, rhubarbpieguy at gmail.com wrote: > > I run compiled Linux From Scratch so use neither an RPM nor DEB distribution > package manager. I got rpm2cpio.prl for Perl years ago and use it only for > OpenOffice RPM files. I just tried it on an OpenOffice language pack RPM > file successfully. > > I saw no MD5 values on their site but my md5sum matches yours. If you can > unpack it using rpm2cpio I'll chalk it up to a mystery as I can process the > DEB file with ar. > > ---------------------------------------------------------- > > On 04/09/2016 09:44 AM, gerry wrote: >> Where did you get rpm2cpio from if you don't use a distribution with an rpm >> extractor? (rpm2cpio is an rpm extractor) >> What tool did you use to download the rpm file? (is it corrupted?) >> >> /tmp/v> rpm2cpio ../vivaldi-stable-1.0.435.42-1.x86_64.rpm| cpio -id >> 332191 blocks >> /tmp/v> dpkg -l rpm2cpio >> [snip] >> ii rpm2cpio 4.12.0.1+dfsg1-3bu amd64 tool >> to convert RPM package to CPIO archive >> >> /tmp/v> md5sum ../vivaldi-stable-1.0.435.42-1.x86_64.rpm >> 848368665107cb1670c15639843ad58e ../vivaldi-stable-1.0.435.42-1.x86_64.rpm >> >> >> Nope; no problem here extracting it. >> >> HTH, >> Ger >> On Sat, 9 Apr 2016, rhubarbpieguy at gmail.com wrote: >> >>> >>> I'm receive "Error: header not recognized" and "cpio: premature end of >>> archive" when attempting to process the following using rpm2cpio: >>> >>> https://download.vivaldi.com/stable/vivaldi-stable-1.0.435.42-1.x86_64.rpm >>> >>> I commonly use rpm2cpio to process rpm files and have had the issue with >>> all Vivaldi's betas. I see nothing about such a problem on their site so >>> assume it's unique to rpm2cpio. I don't use a distribution with an rpm >>> extractor. >>> >>> Can others successfully process the file? >>>