cant install rpm files
 

hey this is ma first post so i hope it works and i get sum responses cause i really need help. im a noob to fedora core 4 and i dont know y ma 'RPM' files arnt workin. i download them to ma desk top. double click on them and it says 'preparing system update' (the screen im guessin usually comes up) and it all looks good but then it says 'package not found'. wat du i du. please
:confused: :cry: :eek: :mad:

Probably the "package not found" refers to a problem where some dependency (a package that is needed by this package you're trying to install) is not installed.

RPM packages can be installed by double-clicking them, from a terminal or using a package manager (which is the preferred choice). A terminal command is something like
and it does the same trick than if you just double-click the file. The problem you're having is, as I said, probably because the package you are trying to install needs some other package(s) installed before itself. You have two options: the first is that you check out the names of the packages that cannot be found (if the graphical tool doesn't show you them, use the console method I described above), download them (as RPM packages), install them first, and after that try to install the package that failed, again.

The other option is to use a package manager, which is wiser. That way the package manager searches the wanted package, checks what it needs, downloads all the dependencies (needed other packages) and installs them for you. With one command, usually. Fedora 4 uses Yum for this, I think, and perhaps something else. You should try from a console:
where packagename is the package you want to install, like gimp for example:
EDIT: there is a situation called "dependency hell" in Linux, which means, for example, that when you're trying to install a package X, it won't install before you install packages Y and Z that depend on it, and they don't install before packages A, B and C are installed first since they depend on those, etc. etc. etc.

Package managers are a way to solve this; you describe certain reposities (lists of locations on the web that contain packages; like a storage) for a package manager like Yum or Apt, and after this when you tell the package manager to install a certain package (application, for example) it searches the reposity for the asked package, reads the details from it to solve what packages it needs, then does the same for the dependencies and after all the dependencies are solved, downloads all the needed packages and installs them (the ideal situation).

A problem with package managers is that if a reposity doesn't include some dependency (or a correct version of it) for some package, then that package cannot be installed since the dependencies are not satisfied. Most package managers, if not all, come with some default reposities configured so you can "just start using them". On the other hand it's often a good idea, and perhaps needed, to search more reposities on the net and add them to your configuration so you have a broader selection of packages to install from (i.e. if your regular reposities don't include a certain app, you can search a reposity that contains it, add it to your list of reposities and thus get it easily installed using a package manager). Updating applications is easy too, using a package manager it often takes just one command to update every possible package on your system that can be updated.

Another problem with package managers is that the reposities have to be updated often, so it needs somebody to do it for you. The packages on the reposities also consume space, so in most cases the reposities only include the latest versions of the packages; this is not a problem as long as they work and you can and want to use them, but if you have done an update, run into troubles and would like to downgrade some package to an older version, that won't happen so easily, not with a package manager at least - it may mean a lot of work by hand. That's why it is a good idea not to update everything as soon as updates are available, but to wait (some days for example) to see if problems are found in the packages and they're possibly fixed.

It is also good to remember this rule: don't fix a working thing. In this case: there is no sense in doing updates unless you really need them.

yer thanks i tryewd that but it says

[root@localhost ~]# yum install amsn
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: updates-released
[root@localhost ~]#

wtf i have no idea wat the 4th line means or y it didnt work.

btw: i am trying to download "AMSN" from the offical site so there are no bits missing, also for convenience i renamed the downloaded folder "amsn". please help.

that 4th line sais that it didn't have a valid repository location (a database full of packages) on the net or your system (if you build a repository yourself). i don't use yum, i use something else that's similar, so i'm not sure how it works. i do know that the disributer of your yum application should have a repository and you would want to link it to that url. i don't know the commands for this, but you can research it yourself browsing yum's manual pages

thanks for ur help but it doesnt exactly help me very much i just want to know y ma comp wont instal rpm files. wat ive told u guys in ma previous posts is all i know so please help.

you need to specify a repository location where yum can find the rpm's you want to download and install. you set this location in your yum configuration file, which is: /etc/yum.conf. you have to find a repository on the internet to use. the place you got your yum from should have a repository. or you have a repository on your machine in a file. a repository can be an ftp (file transfer), file (location on your system or your installation CD's or other medium), or http (www).

http://wiki.linux.duke.edu/ManYumConf

you need yum to work before you will be able to install RPMS, Amphetemine Phreak was leading you in the right direction. you will need to add a yum repository to your machine that hosts the amsn package.

from a quick google of "amsn rpm" I can see that DAG/DRIES offer this rpm in their repos, you'll find the DRIES repo has thousands of packages and most things you'll want to install can be found there.

google "DRIES fedora repo" and you should get to the site, from there you should be able to find instructions on how to configure yum to use their repo. once you have them added you should be able to do a yum install amsn and pull it from DRIES.

If you need a good rpm tutorial, check out the official site.
http://www.rpm.org/RPM-HOWTO/