If you are using synaptic did you update the lists first?

Click the Update List button, then after you have chosen the packages click the Proceed button then it will install the programs you chose plus dependencies that go along with that package.

As for local RPMs from a CD-ROM I believe if you click on actions then add CD-ROM it should allow RPMs from your CDs to be added to the list. It always goes to the FreshRPMs website.

I hope this helps

don't you have to add ftp sites to the apt config file so that it can access the appropriate sites?

The /etc/apt/sources.list file should already have freshrpms links in there.

You did do an "apt-get update" before you tried any installs?

Flibble

i say screw it all and go with "apt-get" from terminal, it's never failed me and has saved my life many times (as Lynx has before)

yeah, but I don't know if it adds all the appropriate ftp sites especially cuz it isn't distro specific in that apt-get is usually used with Debian. Granted, the rpms are made for Red Hat, but can we really assume that all the decent Red Hat ftp sites are in there?

Well, after a long night of sleep I think I may have got it. This morning I installed the very same RPMs again from a terminal using the RPM command. Only this time I did only one or two at a time. I suspect that synaptic would have worked too if I had only done one or two at a time. But shouldn't a terminal be able to handle long command lines?

I've also noticed that since I have switched to RH 9, that having spaces in my directories is causing problems now. My MAME roms wouldn't work in a directory with spaces, my RPMs wouldn't even attempt to install in a directory with spaces, etc. Could this be a bug?

If you have rpm'd apt in then use apt to install synaptic.

$su
password:
#apt-get update
#apt-get install synaptic

then it will resolve deps for you. Another tip: If you have multiple rpms to install via rpm make a new dir in your ~/HOME dir and put all the rpms to be installed there. cd to the new dir and issue:

$rpm -ivh *.rpm
All files with that extention in the new dir will be installed. Becareful with using the -U option as it means "upgrade" not install. It will install pkgs but it also issues the -e (erase) option and that can cause some trouble especially if you are installing software that has never been on your system before. Use -U for newer versions of software already there and use -i for brand new stuff.

Good Luck!

Updating APT was the first thing I did when I ran synaptic. RPM would have told me about the dependencies then spat in my face, not freeze. Synaptic downloaded exactly what I needed, started to install, then froze like RPM did.

As far as my other issue, if anyone out there has Red Hat 9, please put a RPM in a directory with spaces in it, then double click it and see if you get an error. I just want to find out for sure if I need to e-mail RH or not.