Hello!
First off my appologies, this topic has probably been touched somewhere else, but I couldn't find it when I searched thorugh the forum... and I need some help here...

I have Mandriva LE 2005 running on my PC. I got the distribution with 7 CDs of which only three were needed for the installation. Now I'm strongly assuming that there are other programs on the other 4 CDs but I have no way of knowing... since it only shows lots and lots of rpms there with gibberish-like names.
Well I tried going into the package management thing (menu -> system -> ... -> package source ? it's all in german here) and tried adding the CD to the sources it chooses. But it gives me an error message that copying failed and that there are no rmps there. Then I copied the whole CD to my HD and tried the same thing again. When I tried to add the folder from my HD to the source it said copying failed unable to add source.

So... how exactly should I go about doing this, since I figure I must be doing something completely wrong. I have no clue as how to install an rpm at all, except through that manager tool, but it only recognizes rpms that were on the initial 3 CDs. If I add folders that have rpms in them it sais "could not add ... no rpms found."

I could probably install the rpm by double clicking it? but the names don't mean anything to me, so I doubt it would help. I probably need several of them to make up something useful, and I don't know which combinations are usefull... If anyone can help, please let me know, please be detailed, since I'm very new to Linux and don't know where to find everything.

Thanks in advance

First of all, I do only the initial installation via the CD's. After I'm all set up and have an internet connection, i use Easy Urpmi to update (system > mandrake update) and install any additional software. Read the instructions carefully before you type anything into console, as you have to remove your CD's as a medium before you add these sites. Once you have done this you can go to rpmdrake (system > install software) and install almost any software you want by doing a simple search. In general, I try to install using rpmdrake first before I go looking for rpm's for the things I want.

Now, as far as installing rpm's, open a console and cd to the directory where your rpm is, then this command will do it (as root):

# rpm -i packagename.rpm

for more rpm commands do a "rpm --help" or "man rpm" to get more commands. to uninstall the rpm, change the -i to an -e.

One thing you might run into is the rpm you're trying to install will need additional rpms to be installed first (failed dependencies). this can be frustrating. go to rpm.pbone.net to get most of the rpms your missing. this should get you started!

alright, sounds fairly reasonable... now all I have to do is get Linux up and running again. *sigh*

But what do I do once it says that the software is installed? Where did it go? How do I run it?

Normally, it will appear in some category under your menu (equivalent to "start" on MS). If it does not, you can put it there by right clicking on the menu button and choosing "menu editor" or "edit K menu". Click "add application". Then you can find the command in the directory /usr/bin usually. For example if you were installing "firefox" you'd look for the firefox executable in /usr/bin. Once you do that, save your changes and your newly installed program should be there.

hope this helps

Thank you, for some reason I can't find that information anywhere else. All the guides, and walkthroughs stop just before they get to that point =)

Thanks,

It seems like some things that aren't obvious to newbs get omitted from a lot of guides. I guess people who know enough to write a guide or how-to may take for granted what newbs do and do not know. I used to have the same problem, but once you get used to where things are and how linux works, you really start to see some logic in it!