Mystery-RPM Installation
 

Hello,

From the Red Hat ftp site, I downloaded the python2 rpm, took it home, and the Red Hat Package Manager says 'python2.rpm does not appear to be a rpm package'. Thinking my floppies might be bad, I bought 10 new floppies; but the result was the same.

So I assumed the package might be corrupted, I downloaded the python2 rpm packge from rpmfind.net, and still the same thing !!

And the same happens with Python.org's tgz package !! GNOME says, xx.tgx does not appear to be a tar file.

What is wrong ??

I download on a win95m and transfer using floppies
to linux RH 7.1 at home. [splitting the packages with a split program on windows; joining using the cat command]

I have the same probelm with some other rpms, though some rpms happen to be smooth.

A mystery !!

What do you suspect could be the problem ??

1. when downloading with a browser use right-click>save link. some browsers think rpm means Realvideo RPM due to a MIME-type entry.
2. when downloading with an ftp app make sure its set to binary mode, not ascii.
3. sometimes the file isnt there, and u may be downloading a html/php page saying so (check size/md5)
4. the split program may not behave like expected. you can use RAR on both platforms to split into - and rebuild archives. (check size/md5 again in Linux)

* there's a freeware app for windows called ExploreRPM, so u can unpack it and verify the contents. itll also verbose stuff in a written report on the rpm.
** a lot of free GNU utils have been ported to windows, tar, gzip, dd, wget etc. Since wget does (auto)resume and only uses a commandline I prefer it over any Windoze app.

I've been right-clicking all the time; however, I attempt to download an rpm just now, clicking on it the normal way, and Netscape said,

"You can use RealPlayer to play this RealAudio/RealVideo content. Would you like to get RealPlayer now ?"

So what is the mimetype, how do I delete it ?

2) where can I find ExploreRPM ? I cant seem to find it.

Thanks unSpawn !

Wonderful.

I downloaded a utility from ZDnet called "RPM Broswer for Windows".
The Rpms are not currupted. The Tar/tgz/gz files are alright [I found out Winzip can READ/EXTRACT these files]

So the problem is not the brand new floppies.

Come to think of it, this has been happening since I began using GNOME. Perhaps GNOME is mounting the floppy filesystems incorrectly.

But how come my [split] mp3s are transfered perfectly, but rpms and arhives have the problem !!!

Ok, Hang on, I'll get back to you with more info today.

Thanks

Did you 'umount' the floppy before you removed it from the copy machine?

What type of filesystem? (DOS, fat32, ext2) is the disk formatted with?

Check the file permissions.

Yes, I make it a point to unmount every floppy {paranoia}.

I used Win95 format program; I assume it is dos.

file permissions ? The problem is that while the files are copied from the floppy successfully, they appear to be currupted after joining them with the cat command {cat fragment1 >> FullFile}

But I repeat, how come my mp3s are not affected ? I split and transfer them the same way.

Unfortunately on windows Nutscrape doesnt get the mimetypes from a file like in Linux, but from the registry. U can view em under edit>preferences>navigator>applications.
Mucking with these will cause all kinds of funny stuff with the registry u don't want :-]

Its weird one type of binary doesnt get catted the right way. I think finding different way to transfer would be easier for now. Try using either the free GNU utils ported to the w32 platform, or a compressor that handles crc checks and multipart archives like rar, ace, arj or pkzip.