I've got Mandrake 10.1 installed and I've been having trouble installing and upgrading software. I tried uninstalling Opera and reinstalling a newer version and now it won't start up. I would like to do the same with Open Office (1.1.1 to 1.1.4), but I'm afraid it'll stop working. Same with Firefox 1.0.1. What is the proper procedure for upgrading? I usually use the control center update tool (URPMI, I think) to upgrade but sometimes it doesn't detect the new versions of the programs that I wish to upgrade.
In WinXP, it'd be so easy to install, upgrade, remove, or revert to a previous version. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know that it would be "so easy" with windows XP, but that's not the point of this thread. urpmi should be able to perform the upgrades without any uninstall process. And what problems do you get with Opera?

What if urpmi doesn't have the version I need? A lot of times, it doesn't. For example, Firefox 1.0.1.

You can then install the package from the sources or if you are bold enough and take risks download the packges you need from cooker (better to use urpmi though).

Hmm, I've always installed Opera straight from Opera.com; never had a problem. (I'm running Opera 8.0 Beta right now.)

For *most* packages, I stick with urpmi/rpmdrake, because I don't really *need* the newest flavors right now - a few months down the road won't make a difference. I switched to Opera 8.0b shortly after upgrading to 7.54u2, because I wanted better gmail support.

When I tried Firefox, I had no problem using the version in the urpmi repositories, but I *also* installed it from mozilla.org. It has an eay installer - just follow the instructions and it should go fine. I assume the 1.0.1 update will use the same methodology.