Currently im running Knoppix 5.0, HD install, Debian type install.
I attempted to install vmware workstation on my laptop so I could run XP/VS .net to make tutoring at the collage easier.

#rpm -i vmware.rpm

said I had to use alien, so I did, got error about scripts, so I ran

#alien -i --scripts vmware.rpm

or something like that, it locked up my laptop. I rebooted, removed everything (maby my problem?) Later I tried to install BUM,


mknight@contempt:~$ su
Password:
root@contempt:/home/mknight# apt-get install bum
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: The package vmwareworkstation needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
root@contempt:/home/mknight# apt-get remove vmwareworkstation
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: The package vmwareworkstation needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
root@contempt:/home/mknight# apt-get install vmwareworkstation
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: The package vmwareworkstation needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
root@contempt:/home/mknight# apt-get upgrade vmwareworkstation
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: The package vmwareworkstation needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.
root@contempt:/home/mknight#

Nothing works. Im not really familliar at all with 'alien' or rpm so I dont have a clue how to fix this. At this point I dont care about installing vmware, unless someone knows howto easilly.

vmware workstation isnt freely available. so I dont think any of the repos will have it. doing an apt-get should not work with it. so what you get is no errors.
rpms as such cant be run on knoppix, thats the reason you got an error saying onvert it through alien.
finally, nothing realted to vmware has been installed on your pc. and you cant remove something installed by rpm with apt-get.

Download and use the source package. rpm isnt a Debian format and rarely does alien convert an rpm to a deb cleanly.

Not sure about the workstation but VMPlayer installs very easily.

i didnt think apt-get had repos for it either, but why is it doing that...? I get an error running apt-get anything, how did vmware get associated with apt-get? I dont know. But after much slamming my head on keyboard ...

# dpkg --purge --force-remove-reinstreq vmwareworkstation

and it works. If someone could tell me why rpm affected apt-get please explain it.