I am looking at the docs for Yast2 and I am not sure if I understand its capabilities.

1) Can Yast allow me to install any RPMs (not just the ones from the Suse distro)? As an example I manually downloaded MPlayer. I tried installing it with Yast and I get a message about "medium packages not found on the source". Is there something I have to do?

2) Also, Is there some way for Yasts sources database to exist on my hard disk instead of having to put the DVD in? RIght now if I start Yast it says the sources is missing and only shows me the installed packages.

# yast2 -i MPlayer-1.0pre8-8.pm.svn20060811.i586.rpm
(This does nothing and no message appaears.)

3) If I click on any RPM in Konqueror, It shows a button Install with Yast. I click the Install button and gives me a message about medium packages not found on the source.

4) The -log option doesnt work in Yast2. It is shown in the man pages
(--log logfile
Write info to logfile.)

Thanks for your help.

I'm afraid you are experiencing "dependency hell" and the reason I dumped Suse.

Yast will not resolve any dependencies for you, meaning that it is only safe to use for the packages on the DVD. When you downloaded MPLayer you went outside of Yast's capability. You are now in effect on your own re Yast and will have to determine dependencies yourself and resolve them manually.

AFAIK, you wouldn't gain anything from putting the sources list on your hd as you would still need to insert the DVD to install anything from it and the sources list on the DVD won't work with any other source.

Don't know about the -log option!

Of course u can install rpm's that are not included in the suse DVD through yast2 and konqueror window.
From what u are saying i assume that u have not downloaded the proper rpm's.Is the rpm that u have downloaded the right one?(for distro and platform?).There is also a bug not letting rpms to be installed through konqueror window.Just start u and update the kdebase3 package.
If it is a dependency problem(but i think its not),u can edit your instalation source so as to resolve dependencies.
Here is an example on how to do this with packman's repositories
yast2->software->instalation source->add->ftp->
server name: ftp.uni-erlangen.de
Directory on server: pub/mirrors/packman/suse/10.0 (if u use suse 10.0)->OK
Set status and refresh to ON.
Then go to sftware management and write mplayer and istall package.If it is a dependency issue this would solve the problem.
(IF suse installs the version of mplayer that is on the DVD just go to instalation source and disable suse dvd)

Wow, you have almost everything wrong.

As for his installation it sounds like he's using ZMD and not YaST. If you add the inst-source to both ZMD and YaST (or at least verify they both have the source setup) then it will resolve the needed depeneds...

Here, check out this guide:

http://theseoconsultant.com/suseblog...guide_ever.pdf

I am using Yast2.

After some more research I found this great article about setting up Yast2 sources from the Internet and not just DVD.

http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/254/1/

Still Yast is not capable of using an RPM as a source to install unless it's defined in the sources list. However it will show up as installed if you manually install it through RPM.

MPlayer is a bad example as that is already on the sources list. But lets say you want an RPM app that is not on the list. You cannot install it throuh Yast unless it was put in to a source list. And for that you have to know the sources file formatting. Is there an app that can generate a Yast sources file from an RPM?

Someone also said there is a bug with Konqueror and Yast2 installing RPMs. I will try to update and see if that helps.