I'm kind of new to Linux, I used alot of UNIX and Linux before as a user, but I've never been root before.

And now I'm delving deep into it, and I can do some really neat things, but I find that I'm constantly missing some basic 'know how' when it comes to Linux.

1) I have really no clue how to search the file system. There's a manual page for 'search' but it's got alot of testing operaters in it, and I can't get the syntax I put it in to provide any meaningful results.

2) I've no idea how to check my dependencies. I'm using Red Hat 8.0, and I know my Kernel is 2.4.18-14.

But I've been trying to install firefox, to see what it's like, because Netscape is trash (imo), and Netscape 7.2 is trash on steroids (imo).

But it says under 'requirements' on www . getfirefox . com ... (Can't post a URL since I'm a newbie?)
* Linux kernel - 2.2.14 with the following libraries or packages minimums:
o glibc 2.3.2
o XFree86-3.3.6
o gtk+2.0
o fontconfig (also known as xft)
o libstdc++5
* Firefox has been tested on Red Hat Linux 8.0 and later

I have no idea how to check for any of that. Other than the kernel, which I meet requirements on.

But as far as 'Test on Red Hat Linux 8.0' goes, that should mean they're all installed already. I didn't skimp out on any of the packages when I installed either. And just for kicks, I installed all 4gigs of packages on another computer and tried to install firefox, but it failed anyway.

3) I've been trying to get firefox to work, but it always fails with the 'couldn't find xpistub library' error. I've looked for solutions on google, to no avail. I've checked other threads here, and I've gone down the list of solutions, and nothing has worked for me.

Some people say 'Yeah, installed on Red Hat 8.0 no problem.' Some people say 'Yeah, oops, I was running ./firefox-installer-bin instead of ./firefox-installer.' Some people talk about not being root, or not having file permissions on their /tmp directory.

I've been downloading firefox-1.0PR-i686-linux-gtk2+xft-installer.tar.gz and unzipping and untarring it into /root

And I've downloaded firefox-0.9 to see if that'd work, but it doesn't, and I've also downloaded the one without the installer, but I've really no idea what to do from there, unless it's like 'make' or something.

Anyway, help would be appreciated

I downloaded another copy of the distribution without the installer, and when I went to run ./firefox it said that I'm missing glibc 2.3.2

I've no idea where to get a copy, but I'm looking. (I might not know how to install it either)

1) kde and gnome have a typical search feature in their menus as far as i can tell. but at a lower level, use the "locate" command to find locations of files. this is quick as it uses a cached database, which is normally updated nightly, but you can run "updatedb" yorself as root to recache it.

2) "* Firefox has been tested on Red Hat Linux 8.0 and later" seems like a good hint! but mostly the distro will tell you if you're not up to speed. on redhat you can also query the rpm database. for example(christ i need to update that....) but generally you'll be fine. *might* need to install gtk2 but i doubt it.

3) no idea... try the non-installer version (it's still really really simple to install)

hello

i know ur situation can be frustrating..

here's general tips

i don't use rpm based linux distribution.(i used to)
there's a command that u can see , say, if 'xfree 86' rpm is installed on your computer or not.(i can't remember)

what would i do in this case to remind me the command name
-> search google or this forum.
try keywords like 'rpm management'

i got the answer with the keywords.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...rpm+management

also when i ask questions,(that's assuming when i had no idea what the hell i'm doing)
it's much more promising to get an answer
if i show what i did exactly before i get the error.

Thanks guys

[root@kh-linux root]# rpm -qv glibc
glibc-2.2.93-5

[root@kh-linux root]# rpm -qv XFree86
XFree86-4.2.0-72

[root@kh-linux firefox]# rpm -qv gtk+
gtk+-1.2.10-22

[root@kh-linux root]# rpm -qv fontconfig
fontconfig-2.0-3

[root@kh-linux root]# rpm -qv libstdc++
libstdc++-3.2-7


So it looks like glibc, gtk+, and libstdc++ don't cut the mustard here.
They might want to update that 'Works with RedHat 8.0' status.

I guess I'm going to go to the redhat side and download some rpms?
rpm -i <rpm>?

well. something most people find out about right about now is apt4rpm or yum. these are independent programs that can keep track of online repositories of rpms which you can install automatically. worth a look.

but otehr than that... yeah everything can be safely upgraded, except for gtk. gtk is different from gtk2, you actually want both versions installed (and infact it might already be, but i can never remember what the rpm package name normally is thanks to that + in there. try "rpm -qa | grep rpm" which will show all packages containing the string "gtk"

oh and from the rpm command, *always* upgrade, never install (even if it's not already installed). personally i always used to use rpm -Uvh file.rpm when i used redhat.

as an aside though, redhat 8.0 is actually pretty old now in the world of linux. Generally you'll be ok, but as you go on you're likely to find a LOT of programs need upgrading, especiialy in the much stricter (blinder) orl of rpm packages. you might possibly conder using its great great great great grandson, fedora FC3, out in a week or so i think.

[root@kh-linux root]# rpm -qa | grep gtk
pygtk2-1.99.12-7
gtk2-2.0.6-8
authconfig-gtk-4.2.12-3
gtkhtml2-2.0.1-2
gtkam-0.1.4-6
gtk+-1.2.10-22
pygtk2-libglade-1.99.12-7
gnome-python2-gtkhtml2-1.99.11-8
usermode-gtk-1.63-1
gtkhtml-1.0.4-3

Yeah, looks like I've got both.

another quick tip. if you ever compile anything from source rather than a prebuilt rpm, it will require additional developement packages for each library it needs. e.g. a program using gtk2 will not compile at all, until you have installed the gtk2-devel package too.

That is good to know, thanks.

So that's the reason I can't build firefox. That makes sense.

But I've still no idea where this xpistub error comes from on firefox...

Alright so I've been working on this yum thing, and did:
rpm -Uvh yum-1.0.3-1_80.noarch.rpm

And it gave me my ########## bar's and everything worked out fine.

But when I try to run it, it looks at /etc/yum.conf and it tries to look at some outdated duke servers and gives the '404 Err' Not found.

I've tried looking on forums an google and stuff for an updated yum.conf with servers that would actually have the header (?) information that yum wants.

Any ideas?