So i just switched to linux, have redhat 9, and have downloaded several rpm´s (corel draw, realplayer, things like this..) and installed them, but then i can´t find them anywhere. they don´t come up on the desktop and when i perform a search, it says it can´t find them. what the hell? what am i not doing? help!

You can do:

updatedb

and then

locate corel
locate realplayer

You can also try:

whereis realplayer

ok, so i did that, and what i got:

/usr/share/apps/Multimedia/realplayer.desktop
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/16x16/apps/realplayer.png
/usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/32x32/apps/realplayer.png

the problem is is that i don´t know what this means and i don´t know how to run the program....like, for example, is it possible now to put an icon on my red hat desktop so that i can just click on it and run the program? i really know very little about linux - nothing about commands or anything...(i am learning, however).
thanks!

if that hasn't brought anything up (those results are nothing more than icons and links) then you've not got the files anymore or...

1) locate is case sensitive, commerical junk (hint.. don't use them..) like those apps are normally mixed case for some reason

2) if you've installed then then it doesn't matter where they are normally, you just run it without needing to know it's path.

i'm guessing you've not acutally installed at all. coreldraw is a really really crap package, try the gimp instead. sorry for my language, but it's true. also true that it was abandoned 2 years go at least, i believe.

Thanks for bearing with all these tedious questions. ok, so i´m going to explain what i did, and then maybe you have some more advice. i went to some websites and downloaded some rpm´s. then i went into the folder on the desktop where they were saved, clicked on them, and i´m assuming that what happened next is that they installed themselves. i was asked for the root password and then the program was installing. the problem is that after it finished, when i tried to find the program on the desktop, it was nowhere, and when i did a search through the desktop, it was nowhere.

am i missing something? i´ve also downloaded not crap programs like MPlayer, xcdroast, webmin...
but what´s happened to them? i don´t understand....
i would also like to download and install trutype fonts, how do i do this?

thank you thank you thank you!

To run realplayer after install, type "realplay" from the terminal.
To run webmin, open a browser and type the following address.
http://127.0.0.1:10000

For mplayer type "mplayer" from the terminal.

The fonts issue can be solved by searching for true type here in the forum, it has been covered I believe..
Hope this helps a bit.. Some linux programs automagically show up on the K-menu in kde, some don't.

it would have been a lot easier of redhat included some sort of rpm manager, but for whatever reason, they did not. so, i had figure out a way to get around that. to get a list all the rpms installed on your system type in a console like gnome-terminal, konsole, or xterm:

rpm -qa | sort > rpms.txt

this will produce a sorted text file of all the rpms you have installed on your system. instead of having to bother to look through the file for a particular rpm, you can use the grep command to find what you need:

grep "foo" rpms.txt

where foo is the name of the package you are looking for. for example, typing grep "xmms" rpms.txt produces xmms-1.2.7-21.p. from this i know that the package name is xmms and the version is 1.2.7. to find more info you can simply type:

rpm -qi nameofpackage

i.e. rpm -qi xmms

to get a list all the files the rpm installs, type:

rpm -ql nameofpackage

and this will produce every file the rpm puts on your system. if you are only looking to find the executables, you can type:

rpm -ql nameofpackage | grep "/bin"

for example, typing rpm -ql xmms | grep "/bin" produces the output:

/usr/bin/xmms

this means there is an executable in the directory /usr/bin called xmms, which means that you can type /usr/bin/xmms to start the xmms application, however, since the directory /usr/bin is part of PATH environment variable, aka its in your path, you can simply type xmms to execute it.

anyway, as long as u keep that rpms.txt file updated, using the first command, you will always know what rpms are installed on your system.

rpm -qa | grep foo

thanks xyance and kater, that was good advice, although it didn´t all work. i tried the rpm -qa | sort > rpms.txt to try to find a list of all the rpms, but nothing happened. i just got the prompt again in the console.
i found the executable RealPlayer file, however, when i typed "realplay" in the console, the window for RealPlayer registration came up, but then the program never ran (like i had to type in an email address, but then nothing happened, the program didn´t run). and then i tried to find files for webmin and mplayer, but again nothing came up.

does this mean these programs aren´t correctly installed? how do i know if they are installed correctly? how do i know when i download a program whether or not it will install itself correctly?

will i ever be able to run programs without having to type some long complicated command into the console? or, will i ever have the luxury of simply clicking on an icon on my desktop???? AAAHHH!!!


thanks thanks thanks!!!

what happens with "rpm -qa | sort > rpms.txt" is that a file is created in your home directory, if u haven't moved into another directory. so, just double click on the home icon on your desktop and see if rpms.txt is there. then just double click to view it.

and yes, u can run programs without using "some long complicated command". u should be able to just right click on your desktop and make a shortcut icon. it will ask to for the command to you want to execute, and as in the case with RealPlayer, that command is "realplay". all that stuff i posted about the rpm command is just to show you how to keep track of all the rpms and help you figure what command you need to type or use to make a shortcut icon to run programs

That's my main complaint is the absence of a RPM Manager!!! Also RH probably did not install the program when she double-clicked the RPM. That's what's happening with me.

Isn't that what /var/log/rpmpkgs is?

I understand that when you install (or update or whatever) from rpms, these are deleted by default after install. I think this is what I have read.