Hi Everyone,
I'm sorry for the really basic question, but I'm quite new to the Linux scene and I am absolutely loving it so far. I recently downloaded a few programs that I have been trying to install. I had never done this before (had to do a bunch of reading on tarballs and gzipped files). I also however, have some RPMs which I was trying to install, but they keep coming up with a massive list of Failed Dependencies. I was just wondering if anyone could help me understand how I overcome this, and where I locate files that are dependencies for installing other programs.

Thanks a lot.
-Steve

P.S. - I should also mention that I'm using Mandrake 10.1

To install rpm's safely on Mandrake and prevent dependency problems, use Mandrake built in package management tool, urpmi. to find out more about urpmi takre a look at these sites, zebulon.org.uk and easyurpmi. As for source packages, the most coomon method is to extract them as follows,

$tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz (for *tar.gz files)
or
$tar -xjvf filename.tar.bz2 (for *tar.bz2 files)

change into the directory thats been extracted and do,

$./configure
$make
#make install (as root)

not every package conforms to that standard, usually there is some form of documentation informing you on how to install the package, read that first before attempting to install anything.

You could also try reading the entirety of this thread: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...0&pagenumber=1

HTH

So basically, if my linux box does not have an internet connection, I'm basically S.O.L.? Is there no way I can download on another machine what is needed for the dependencies and then burn it to cd or some other means and move it over to the linux box? Because from what I can tell, URPMI needs to be connected to the net and then downloads the dependencies (?).

Thanks,
-Steve

You can use your installation CD's with urpmi. Urpmi is probably already configured to use your installation CD's. Urpmi is basically the command line tool for package managment on Mandrake and RPMDrake is the GUI, so if you are running RPMDrake, you are running urpmi.

Ok, thanks a lot for all the help so far, but I'm still having a little bit of trouble!
I actually set up the internet connection on my linux box (where I am right now), and used the urpmi function to download all the dependencies I needed, but when I try to install an RPM file, I am still getting this list of failed dependencies;

Failed dependencies:
devel(libart_lgpl_2) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libaudio) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libDCOP) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libexpat) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libfam) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libfontconfig) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libfreetype) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libICE) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libjpeg) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libkdecore) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libkdefx) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libkdesu) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libkdeui) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libkio) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(liblcms) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libmng) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libpng) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libqt-mt) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libSM) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libX11) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libXcursor) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libXext) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libXft) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libXinerama) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libXrandr) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libXrender) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libXt) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db
devel(libz) is needed by k3b-0.11.18-db

Obviously, I'm trying to install the k3b burning software (latest version), and put in the commands exactly as the easyurpmi site told me to, but am still getting this. Any more ideas?

Also, as another quick question, I was trying to install a tar.gz file, un-tarred it, went through the ./configure, make and make install commands (as it told me to in the install doc.) and I'm not completely sure, but it should have installed. After it is installed, where would I find the executable file for this program?

Thanks again,
-Steve

All you need to do is run, as root
#urpmi k3b
and all dependencies should be automatically resolved.

As for the tar file, the program should be in /usr/local/bin, if you didn't stipulate a prefix for it. Try entering the program name in a console and see if it runs.

Thanks for all the help so far, and I'm sorry for being a pest! I typed in;
#urpmi k3d

and it came back and said, "Everything Needed is Already Installed" (or something along those lines, I'm actually at work right now, so I can't remember exactly). So I tried to once again install the RPM file, and all the same failed dependencies came up. Any more ideas?

If it says k3b is installed, have you tried looking for it on your menu, or running "k3b" in the console?. By the way hope you didn't type it with the "#", I put it in to show you that you have to run the command as root. If someone types a "$", it means the commnad is to be entered as a normal user.

No, don't worry, I put the # to let you know that I entered the commands as root as well! And yes, I already do have k3b installed, and have run it before, but it is an older version. What I am trying to do is install the newest version of the program. But the same problem (with lots of failed dependencies) is happening when I try to install other programs as well (that aren't already installed on the system). I don't know what exactly is causing this. And I also tried to install another program, which seemed to go through fine, but I cannot find where it installed, and it's not in the usr/local/bin.

I don't know whether there is a specific upgrade feature in urpmi for one package, but the way I upgrade/update my system is by doing

#urpmi --auto-select

It upgrades any packages for which there are newer versions in the urpmi software repositories you have configured.

Just realised that you can do,

urpmi --update packagename

For that command to work though, you need to make sure you have an "update" source configured for use with urpmi.

What command are you using to install?
If upgrading type ' rpm -Uvh *.rpm '
If installing fisrt time rpm -ivh *.rpm '
You can add --test to the end of the rpm commands above to check to see if it will work before trying. ' rpm -Uvh *.rpm --test '

Brian1
" Google the Linux way @ http://www.google.com/linux "

I tried both of those command parameters (-Uvh and -ivh), but they both came back with the same errors. I haven't tried what reddazz has most recently told me yet, but I have a feeling there's something else really weird going on here. Anyways, I'll try those commands as soon as I get home from work tonight and let you guys know how it goes.

Thanks again,
-Steve

I'm not sure if Mandrake uses APT or can use it, but if it can then apt has this really neat feature which installs dependancies on demand. I'll let you read about it from

http://www.debian.com/doc/ and click on APT HOWTO.

here is a section from there which you might find helpful:


------------------------------------------------------------------------


5.3 How to install packages "on demand"
You're compiling a program and, all of a sudden, boom! There's an error because it needs a .h file you don't have. The program auto-apt can save you from such scenarios. It asks you to install packages if they're needed, stopping the relevant process and continuing once the package is installed.

What you do, basically, is run:

# auto-apt run command
Where `command' is the command to be executed that may need some unavailable file. For example:

# auto-apt run ./configure
It will then ask to install the needed packages and call apt-get automatically. If you're running X, a graphical interface will replace the default text interface.

Auto-apt keeps databases which need to be kept up-to-date in order for it to be effective. This is achieved by calling the commands auto-apt update, auto-apt updatedb and auto-apt update-local.


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Please let me know if this is helpful.