Actually... I DO need to move them, since I think I need to reformat windows. I think the partition utility on mandrake screwed it up. Messenger no longer works there, and some files are now in the wrong places. That means that reformatting is probably a good idea...

Hi M O L8ingN2dust

You dont have to download anything from there, just enter your mandrake distribution and architecture (i assume i586), and you will get the commands that you should type in console as a root. Then it will do the same job as the software manager do. Its going to repeat the same thing, if there are conflicting versions of software. So figure out these conflicting packages and update them, afterwards update the main package (inthis case, gaim). Also you can remove all the links in the software manager and add new links using easy urpmi (base, update_source, and contribs), and update whatever you see (previously as conflicting with the gaim), it will do good for you.

I STILL haven't gotten this thing downloaded!

bash: urpmi.addmedia: command not found

Am I supposed to try it one line at a time, or enter it all at once... I suppose it doesn't matter since I tried both. They should make it so you can copy and then paste to the command prompt...

also, when someone says type in the console as a root, does that mean my default user account? If not, how do I log into root?

Well, you should work as root. This means you open a command terminal, type
su
- you will then be asked for your root user password, which you enter. You are then working as the administrator, who is obviously the only one who should be allowed to change these system settings. Then you paste the addmedia commands, and it should work. You usually copy the entry by copying from the webpage, and you paste by middle-clicking in the command line terminal.

To expand a little on what OSourceDiplomat said:

Unless you are an experienced "guru" and know the risks, and are willing to take them, always log on to your Linux box as a normal user. There will be some things you cannot do, though. (This is a *good* thing! ) "urpmi" is one of them. To do these things, you open a terminal window ("Konsole" in KDE) and enter the command "su". You will then be prompted for your root password. Once that is entered, you will see your prompt changes from "$" to "#", indicating you are "root". You may now do anything that root can do, within that terminal window. You are still just "you" everywhere else on your screen!

So to update your urpmi sources, you open a terminal window, type "su", and then the root password when prompted, and then paste (middle mouse button is the standard paste command in a terminal window) the output from easyurpmi. Either paste the whole thing at once, or paste one *command* at a time -- everything from one "urpmi.addmedia..." to the next "urpmi.addmedia..." -- on my system it usually fills two to three lines. Wait for it to finish. For each uprmi.addmedia command, it has to go out to the net and download the hdlist file for that repository and update your internal list of sources. When you are all done, type "exit", and you will be logged out from the root account in that terminal, and returned to normal user status.

Then you can either use the "urpmi" command (as root ) to install/update applications, or you can run "rpmdrake" (as root ) or just start the Mandrake Control Center/Software Management utility (which is just "rpmdrake" ), and you will be prompted for your root password in a dialog box.

Okay, I installed it I think, but I can't find it anywhere! I looked all through the star menu, and nothing. Is there some easier way to browse your files on mandrake? I tried searching, but it found nothing

What exactly are you looking for? gaim? urpmi? "It" isn't very descriptive.

as for urpmi:to get to the mcc, just follow the menu: Star --> System --> Configuration --> Configure Your Computer.

okay, so I suppose it is listed as "media manager". If that is the case then how in the heck do you use that thing? It doesn't seem to do anything except configure the software itself...

I was looking for easy urpmi...

I guess it is a console program then?

Ok... I am going to have to get used to the console thing. Does it run the same commands as DOS? I know how to operate DOS.

"Media manager" is used for configuring the software, correct. there should be three *other* options, though: Install, Remove, and Update. Those are for managing the software on your system.

"Easy Urpmi" is just a web-based tool to help set up your sources. The actual install/remove/update of applications is either done through the rpmdrake gui (above) or from the console, using "urpmi" commands.

Edit: The *nix command line is "similar" to DOS (DOS is really rather crippled). The same commands will not necessarily work.

ok... I thought the install, remove, and updates was RPMdrake... I guess that is now easy urpmi...

PS I edited my post above and asked a question: Does the console follow the same commands as DOS? I know a good bit of DOS, so that would make that easy for me...

lol - cross-editing.

ok... the install interface doesn't seem any different to me at all. It still only wants to install programs off of the mandrake disc. So if I want to install gtkhtml-0.8.tar.bz2 (located on my desktop), then how do I do that?

Word of advice to all linux programmers and designers... Make the console act like DOS. To someone who is unfamiliar with linux like me, this is a nightmare! There is nothing wrong with making software that is easy to learn.

As soon as I begin college and get my computer science degree, I plan to come back to this and design some software that is easy to use as windows or at bare minimum DOS. I don't see any reason why this can't be done. Maybe there is a distro that is already like this, and I am just missing it...

Think I need a tutorial, anyone know where to find a good one?

To make it *not* use your cds, go tto the "media manager" you saw before, and *un*check the cd items.

To install gtkhtml-0.8, Open the "Install" window, and see if you can find it in a "Search". If so, just select it, and click the "Install" button. If you can't find it in rpmdrake, then you need to use your tar.bz2 file you downloaded, and compile it from source. This is a decidedly more complex process, so try the rpmdrake step, first.