i have mandrake 9.0 and after deleting kde 3.0.5a and then realizing it didn't help anything, then reinstalling packages, i now have kde 3.0.3.

i am seriously confused and frustrated at this point. i want to install kde 3.1 or 3.1.1, so i downloaded most of what i could find of 3.1.1. but there's so many dependencies that i don't know what to do.

qt 3.1
fontconfig
libfontconfig...etc, etc.

but the dependencies are being stupid. if i try to install one, say libqt, it says "qt needed." so i try to install qt, and then it says "libqt needed." so all of my packages are tangled into one big annoying dependency, and i'm about ready to just throw all of my linux related software in the toilet and forget it exists...!!!!!

so if anyone could help me, that'd be nice...thanks for reading.

Are we running ldconfig after updating the libraries?

Are the libraries installing to a path that the new installs are looking in?

There are also some environment variables that may also need to be setup for some of those libraries (paths being the most common culprit). Once you have made these changes you may need to reread the environment variables (ie: if you need to add or alter a path statement in your /etc/profile you need to 'source /etc/profile' to load those variables for the current session).

i have no idea what you're talking about. all i know is nothing i want to install will install because there's dependencies everywhere...

here are some of the things that i apparently need...

libXft.so.2
libfontconfig.so.1 (this one needs the one below)
fontconfig-2.1.4 (but this needs the above one)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3)
libqt3 (needs the two below)
libqt3-common, and libqt3-devel(both need the one above)

and in order to install GLIB_2.3.1, i have to basically uninstall every package i have...???...???...

I don't think you have to uninstall all the packages, but if you're installing the packages built specifically for your distribution then there may be a problem with dependancies (when they were packaged as rpms)

You probably shouldn't be upgrading KDE yourself. Instead, upgrade Mandrake - it's free, and they have done the hard work for you.

i was hoping to avoid that, just because it takes a while to download the ISOs and i actually bought 9.0...so i was hoping my $40 would last a little longer. but i suppose if it's just designed not to run kde 3.1, then i'll have to upgrade to 9.1...it's strange how kde would upgrade their gui making it near impossible for people to upgrade...but oh well.

It's not near impossible, it's just not something a newbie should be doing. Stuff like the kernel, glibc, X, KDE/GNOME - these are all core system components. An OS upgrade for that is reasonable. Mandrake *is* free you know, you can always get CDs from cheapbytes

Hi I am now running KDE3.1 with Mandrake 9.1, however before I downloaded 9.1 I had 9.0 and I did find a site where someone had built KDE3.1 for Mandrake 9.0 and posted it. There were 4-5 unresolved dependencies when I tried it, so I had to download the files from the site, find the dependency files (easy with google - and they did not bring up loads more) and use KPackage to install the lot, and it worked fine.

I would recommend, however, that you do the upgrade to Mandrake 9.1 because the software update/add and remove software section in the control centre works a lot better, it was in my experience flawed in 9.0 - I found myself dependent on KPackage for adding programs.

DAVE

thanks for the notice...perhaps i'll have to spend a few days downloading 9.1, but i hope it'll last a little longer. has anyone stopped to wonder why, if these OSs are so great, do they keep releasing newer versions? i understand they need fixes, etc...but it seems a little counter-productive to continually release all new versions every few months. maybe i'm sounding crazy, i don't know.

anyway, thanks.

This is a frustrating thing about RPM that the Debian folks always point out. (Their package system automagically resolves dependencies in these situations) What you have to do is give RPM
ALL the packages it needs at the same time. So if you need package X, and it depends on Y, and Y depends on Z, you say:

rpm -Uvh X.rpm Y.rpm Z.rpm

Now you may discover that Z depends on A. Just add it to the end of the list:

rpm -Uvh X.rpm Y.rpm Z.rpm A.rpm

Eventually you'll get all the dependencies worked out. Command line recall is your friend. 8)

That's not crazy. It's one reason why the Linux companies are able to make money off their "Enterprise class" versions. Those are far more stable than the free versions. This appeals to companies (and, importantly, to software vendors) that need a stable system to base a business on.

The short answer as to why distros change so frequently is that that's how fast open source software is changing. You wanted KDE 3.1. Well, that depends on a newer version of QT, which depends on newer versions of other system libraries and so on. Red Hat has signaled that they are going to be accelerating the rate at which they incorporate new software into their consumer version. For example, they included a new thread library in 9, which broke a lot of other software. A cynic would say they are doing this so that their stable Advanced Server product will look even more attractive to corporate buyers. A less cynical observer might say that it's a play for the software enthusiasts that have always been the backbone of Linux. I think the answer is "yes."

By the way, I use Red Hat 9. I went in to it with open eyes so the fact that Crossover Office (based on WINE) broke didn't surprise or outrage me. I just got that app back about two weeks ago, which shows that other open source developers are working just as hard as Red Hat to disrupt my life. 8)

ok so i decided to take a new stab at it...and i was making progress. i'm almost there. in order to install qt3, i need freetype 2.1.3. so i type:

rpm -U freetype2-2.1.3-12mdk.i586.rpm freetype2-devel-2.1.3-12mdk.i586.rpm

and i get:

Segmentation Fault

nothing more...that's all it says. is there something i can do about this?

thanks.

Hmm. That's bad. 8)

One thing: you may not need the -devel version, and maybe you'll get lucky and that will solve the problem. Another possibility is that your RPM database has a problem, what with all the activity. You can rebuild it with rpm --rebuilddb. Finally, where are you getting all these RPMs? Are you sure they are right for your distro and hardware? The i586 designation refers to certain Cyrix CPUs, as I recall. If you have a PII or better, you should look for i686 versions. The i386 should work fine too.

Good luck!

If I may add a comment. You can get MDK 9.1 or RH 8 or 9 at www.spidertools.com for $5.49 with shipping. It is the basic 3 disc package, no support, but the CDs work great. Or check ebay, both are selling for $5-10 right now. It might be worth $5 - 10 just to avoid the dependency "hell." It was to me.