It seems that whatever I try to install is dependent on something else, so I try to install that first and that is also dependent on something. I swear some of them are dependent on each other as well and wont let me install either first :/
Is there anyway I can get round this and just install everything I'm likely to need in one go?

Maybe if you could reveal the distro you are using this question might make sense. I suspect the answer is 'RedHat', in which case I reccoment installing 'yum'.

http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/

Otherwise, you can Ximianise your system and install the red carpet tool.

TIM

Mandrake 10
Heres an example, I tried to install GAIM, it said I needed gcc or something, so I installed that, then it said I needed something else, but I couldnt install that until I'd installed something else and so on....

Mandrake 10 - A Newbies Review

Mandrake 10 has been out for a couple of weeks now and from what I've seen most people seem to like it. I'm running it right now as a workstation and in my humble opinion this release was thought out much better than 9.2 (although compared to 9.1 it misses the mark a little). The fact that you have to manually install Mozilla and Evolution is a pain in the arse. Mandrake was smart enough (this time) to include the current releases of popular software (good job guys) but when are they going to start including Sun's Java VM, Flash and RealPlayer in the community release?!!! They were nice enough to put some of the icons back on the KDE panel and the application start menu is organized a little better than 9.2. In general I give it a "A" for effort with the suggestion that there is some room for improvement. Hey Mandrake...the standard workstation install should include:

1. OpenOffice
2. Evolution
3. Mozilla
4. RealPlayer
5. MPlayer
6. Sun's Java VM
7. Gaim
8. XMMS
9. GTK-Gnutella
10. Macromedia Flash
Is it on the cd?

Interesting comments comprookie2000. I am awful at Mandrake and would like it to be a bit more intuitive and "kind of Windows like" in terms of installing software and file structure. Guess it will just take some eh? But as you mentioned, it would be nice if some of the distros came with some of the more popular programs that newer - Window - trying - defectors would like to see to ease the transition. I think if newer users could have some of the programs baby fed to us, frustration would be minimal and we would be more positive about the experience.

I still enjoy Mandrake and will keep at it and appreciate the patience of this forum.

I'm guessing that since you say you need gcc that you are trying to install from source. With mandrake, you want to install rpms, which are the applications compiled for you and put into a single file with the extention .rpm

With mandrake, there is a tool called urpmi that will automatically resolve dependencies for you, and install all the rpms necessary when trying to install a single application.

Here is a link you may find very useful. As it states at the bottom of the page, "you might want to type urpmi.removemedia -a first, in order to reinitialize urpmi's setup"

http://urpmi.org/easyurpmi/index.php


After you run all the commands the page instructs you to, as root, all you simply have to do to install gaim is (as root):

urpmi gaim

To synch your local package database so that it contains the latest info on available software:

urpmi.update -a

To update all the software on your system (with the exception of the kernel):

urpmi --auto-select


Well, I hope you find this useful. The plf (penguin liberation front) repository will contain alot of software that doesn't come with the stock mandrake install. You will get this new repo by following the directions on the link I provided near the top of this post.

I don't know how the Mandrake review fits into this thread.

Mandrake has a package manager that makes it easy to install. On the menu, just go to system, configuration, and packaging. It will automatically show and install all of the dependencies for you.

Thanks a lot red_over_blue, very useful

Hey, buddies, I installed OpenOffice 1.1.0 on my Mandrake 9.1, and I just can't find any of it's icons (well, in this case, I mean the application links for OpenOffice)!!! I tried to reinstall Mandrake several times (for other reasons), but the icons are still missing... how can I put them in my desktop, or in the Application menu?

Thanks!!!