Newbie needs help with RPMs
 

OK, I feel like an idiot. I've been administering systems since Northstar multiuser systems in the late 70s, but am new to administration in the *NIX world.

I tried to start with Debian, but could not get XWindows to talk to my mouse, or video card, so fell back to RedHat 9 which I appear to have succesfully installed. ( I will go back and make Debian work, but another day after I get a little more *NIX experience)

Now I'm trying to do something that should be simple. Upgrade Mozilla to 1.4. right?

So I understand dependencies, and have downloaded mozilla*1.4*.dag.rh90.i386.rpm from dag.wieers.com.

Double clicking any of them pops up a window whining about dependencies. I have all the files, but there must be something I am missing. Do they have to be in a specific directory, or do I have to edit a config file to see them where I put them?

Uninstalling 1.2.1 that came with RH9 did not help, and I believe actually created two new dependencies for libnsss3.so(NSS_3.7), and libxpcom_compat.so which I don't know where to find.

I know I am close, I just need those one or two bits of information I am missing to get moving again.

Command lines don't scare me, and editing config files etc is no big deal, but I'd like to make this work through the GUI if at all possible since that was they way I started the process.

Feel free to point me to the right documentation that I clearly haven't read. :-)

Thanks in advance.
-Dean

How did you uninstall the old version?
rpm -e mozilla ?

you might want to try to reinstall 1.2.1
If you registered your machine with Red Hat you can just type
up2date mozilla
in a terminal window. This will download all your dependencies and install them. This will atleast get you back to where you were.

Then try to uninstall mozilla 1.2.1 like this
rpm -e --nodeps mozilla

This keeps all of your dependencies from being uninstalled.
Then you can try to install the new version.

But really what features are you trying to get out of 1.4 that are not in 1.2.1?

Casey

System Settings - Add/Remove Applications and I already reinstalled 1.2.1 this way.

Yes, the system is registered, and it has all the normal updates, but I didn't see Mozilla in the list of available updates. I may try the "up2date mozilla", but now that I have started this the hard way would like to know why I can't get the RPMs to see each other even though they are in the same directory. There has to be a trick...

This is primarily an exercise to get familiar with installing software, but also a partial necessity to support LM security through a MS ISA/proxy server which I believe is supported under 1.4

This is really a learning opportunity for me... The next big challenge will be getting OpenNMS up and running, but not until I can get the basics under my belt.

Well IMHO ever since RH went to there own graphical package interface you are better of using rpm from the command line. Start by updating your rpm database that helps 60% of the time.

(up on soapbox)
Having run RH since 6.2 I can tell you the only advantage to running RH is if you want to get certified. It has become an awful heavy distro and with there automatic update notification my firewall logs would get quite lengthy and I had'nt touched the box all month!
They are just one step away from moving to Redmond, next door to King Bill.
(back down from soapbox)

Try Slackware 9.0, it will probably configure most your hardware for you but leave enough for you to learn what is really happening with your box.
Debian is an excellent choice you just have to research your hardware a little more to make installing less painfull.

dbenz

I just started RH my self last night and spend about 3 hours trying to get Gaim to work so I could connect to my MSN account. Anyways..

You said that your RPMs are in the same folder, last night my GAIM update needed a bunch of new dependencies, I downloaded them from sourceforge.com and had to install them. I am not sure if you just downloaded them but it sounds like it since you said they are in the same folder. I am pretty sure that you will need to install them to get it to work correctly.

Again this might sound stupid, but I just started last night and have been trying to read all I can. I know windows like the back of my hand and hope to be able to conquere linux soon.