rpm's should be pretty easy, right..?

phz · 10-26-2003, 08:39 AM

Being a newbie, i try the easiest way to get things working on an old 486 machine. And the easiest way, i'm being told, is installing rpm's. I have installed Mandrake 7.0 (cuz it's what i found at that moment for an 486), but are experiencing some problems installing rpm-packages.

When i run the 'rpm -q <package>' i'm being told the packages are not installed. Fine, then i run 'rpm -i <package>' but get the msg "The package is already installed". Hmm... i try again, this time with the 'force' option, and then run a 'rpm -q' on the package. Guess what? It says package is not installed. Am i doing something obviously wrong? Does it matter from where on my system i run the rpm command? When i tried, i executed the rpm command from /mnt/cdrom. Help!

david_ross · 10-26-2003, 08:40 AM

When you use:
rpm -q <package>

Are you using the rpm name:
rpm -q somepackage-version.rpm

You just need the package name:
rpm -q somepackage

phz · 10-26-2003, 12:19 PM

...but i'm kinda sure that i wrote 'rpm -q sompackage*' or maybe just 'rpm -q so*' - i sorta try not to type more than i really need to. i'll check later.

davecs · 10-26-2003, 02:27 PM

1. Have you visited "easy urpmi" at http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon

You will get instructions how to add a number of Mandrake sources to your graphical software update system (urpmi) thus avoiding messing with the command line.

2. Have you loaded KPackage? This comes with Mandrake but in 9.1 is not installed as standard. It is a great Package Manager which you can use to control your rpms from KDE, for those that you get from other sources not available through urpmi.

DAVE

phz · 10-26-2003, 03:02 PM

...but unfortunately it didn't help me much. you see, i installed Mandrake 7.0 on an old 486 without the X window system. i just try to make the system work, so i can get on with creating LinuxFromScratch on it. my goal is to have the nessesary command line tools operational, so i can get on with it. thanx anyway

davecs · 10-26-2003, 06:26 PM

Sorry, phz! I thought you were asking about both your new 9.2 box and the old 7.0 box.

Still, best of luck in your endeavour. Maybe if you can get an old 486 going with graphical interface etc you could post a report of how you did it somewhere, for people with old hardware (eg sent to developing countries, or donated to charities) to give it a go!

DAVE