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Debian and Ubuntu packages make it easy to hack on software that's packaged and try out your changes, within the framework of the packaging system. These instructions assume that you have an understanding of how Debian packaging works, although all you really need to know is that each file in the distribution comes from a package, which contains the compiled form of a source package.

1. Figure out what package the software is from. Usually it's named approximately the same as the software itself, e.g., barnowl or gdb or libwww-mechanize-ruby. You can use the command dpkg -S to figure out where a file comes from, or search on packages.debian.org or packages.ubuntu.com.

2. Type apt-get source followed by the package name. This will download the source package.

3. cd into the directory that was just created and make whatever changes you want.

4. Run the command dch -i, which edits the debian/changelog file and increments the version. Add something like "~edited1" to the end of the version, because a version with a tilde in it is considered older than a version without. This means Debian will let you install your edited version over the current version, but also permit the next offical release to supersede your hacked version.

5. Run the command debuild to compile the software and build a package.

6. cd .. and then find the package that was just built. As root, run dpkg -i followed by this package name.

You can find more information about writing Debian or Ubuntu packages in Ubuntu's packaging guide or SIPB's packaging tutorial on the Debathena website.