installation RPM problems
 

I am trying to install XMMS onto Fedora Core 4
I just discovered the RPM stuff as opposed to the tar.

So I downloaded xmms-1.2.10-1.src.rpm, The xmms website says it's for Fedora
Opened up superuser terminal, directed to the folder where the file above is
and type:

rpm -i xmms-1.2.10-1.src.rpm

and get:

cannot create %sourcedir /usr/src/redhat/sources

What's the problem now? Thanks in advance.

The rpm you are attempting to install is a source rpm. It will only install the source for the package, not the package itself. Are you root when you run it? If not, that is why it cannot write to /usr/src.

If you intended to get the binary rpm, look for the same rpm name without src in its name. Or just su to root and install the source, then compile it.

thnks
 

Downloaded binary version xmms-1.2.10-1.i386.rpm and a program called Install Packages(?) opened and installed it all for me.

Thank you for the information and quick response! ;)

Anytime, and welcome to LQ. :-)

Have you tried other distos? RH is useful if you want to compile everything from source. Read this http://www.pcc-services.com/distcomp...omparison.html if you want.

Installation rpm problem can be easily controlled with package manager. I don't think RH use a full blown package manager.

glad to be welcomed :)

thindla,

I've been into linux about a week now, starting with a LiveCD of Knoppix. So far I love this alternative to windows all except for installations, which I don't really mind figuring out. After testing it all out on knoppix, I tried a liveCD of Ubuntu and it was okay to play around with. I then downloaded install of Fedora Core 4--Redhat is basically all I've know about Linux in the past, because it's on the shelf at the store. I split my hard drive with partition magic and tried out all the interfaces of Fedora. I didn't know much, and was having problems with ATI, trying to get the drivers to install off their website. So I thought I'd keep looking and ended up installing Ubuntu onto the partition, soon learning it was too user-friendly and I wasn't able to customize alot of what I normally do, driving me away from GNOME desktop a little. So I tried Debian. I don't know if it didn't install right or if this is how it is, but all I got was command lines, and soon reinstalled Fedora Core 4. So that's all of the distributions I've tried so far.

From your link, I think I'll try out Suse, it looks like it has some features I'll really appreciate. How's installing new software? I've had absolutely no luck getting tar.gz tar.bz type stuff to work. Yet. I'm sure I'm just missing some key, obvious part of the process.

I'll definitely be posting for some help whenever I can't find the solution already out there, thanks again.

Here's great thread that I learn a lot from it such as setting up package manager using Easy-URPMI http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=203939

This makes your life a lot easier since you don't run into problem compiling from source. As you can see the above link is in Mandriva forum but I guess it might be the same as for SuSe.

Best of luck.

ack
so both suse and mandrake cost eh

The best package manager in the world in my opinion is apt. All the debian distros, including (K)ubuntu use it. It makes installing virtually anything as easy as typing apt-get install <packagename>, or simply clicking the packages checkbox in synaptic. If you are distro shopping I highly suggest checking out Ubuntu (If you like gnome) or Kubuntu (if you like KDE). They are both free (as in beer) as well.

Mandriva has a version for download, thats free as in beer. Redhat derived distros can also use apt and synaptic though its discouraged on Fedora Core 4, but still works fine. YUM is also a very good package manager for Redhat based distros, but lacks a good gui frontend.