im trying to install some libraries, but RPM gives me this message:

"only packages with major numbers <= 3 are supported by this version of RPM"

so naturally i try to find a different version of RPM. i downloaded db3-3.1.17-4.i386.rpm from www.rpm.org but couldnt install it for the same reason as above. I then tried the next most recent version, being db3-3.1.17-4.6x.i386.rpm. It installed correctly but was not able to install the libraries which i had originally intended to install.

i just need to know if there is some way to manually install the latest RPM or any other way to get around this problem.

Try to upgate your RPM program to 4.0.x

rpm --version will show what you have

thanks.
although the rpm of version 4 didnt work i just used the tar.gz file instead

I am a bit late with this comment...

You need to install rpm-3.0.5, which then allows installation of later rpms.

Search this forum for more info, its been mentioned before

Joe