I am using red hat 9 how can i convert tar files to rpm.
How can i update new kernal from tar files.
How can i access windows partitions in read & write mode.

First of all... that's three questions :-)

Second, why are you still using Red Hat 9 and not one of the Fedora Core releases?

Third, here is a link to tell you how to build an rpm out of a tar file: http://kwave.sourceforge.net/doc/en/...rom_targz.html

Fourth, to update your kernel in a Red Hat OS, I would recommend using the yum utility from the command line in which case you would simply type "yum update kernel" at the prompt as root. Otherwise, you will need to untar your tar file and manually compile your kernel using the new code from within that file.

And lastly, here is a link to the instructions from Red Hat on how to access a Windows partition from within Red Hat 9: http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...a-windows.html

Good Luck!

what is that poll for? and why do people still call it a "kernal"??

a please or thankyou doesn't go amiss either.

Are we sure this is not homework??

.tar is an extension indicating an archive--containing many files. You "unpack" an archive to get all the files (whatever format they are)

The most foolproof way to share data between Windows and Linux is with a FAT32 partition.

Don't bother updating your kernel until:
A: You get more comfortable with the basics.
B: You move to a more modern distro (as already suggested)

"kernal"???? I thought it was "colonel"......

Problem still not resolved. I have a new kde xp tar.gz file. i will be able to extract it. But how can we convert those files into rpm in mendrake 10.1 official edition.

Regards

What format are the files now? .rpm is a file type used by the RPM package manager. Normally, you get SW already packaged into .rpm files--did you try that route.

There is SW to create .rpm packages, but I ma not familiar with it.

To get more help, tell us more about what you are trying to install.

Now you're working with Mandrake 10? What happened to Red Hat 9?

Could you please share what your ultimate goal here is?

Your questions seem random to me, unless I'm missing something.

• A "kde xp tar.gz" file does not necessarily have anything to do with updating your kernel.
• An RPM built in Red Hat 9 will not necessarily be 100% compatible with a Mandrake OS...both are RPM based (actually Mandrake started out as a modification of Red Hat), but there are enough differences now that not all RPM are equally compatible with both.
• It's very difficult to provide assistance without a solid understanding of what exactly you are trying to accomplish.

Hi,
I'm currently new to the entire linux system.
But I wanted to create a RPM file. So, my quesiton is what do I need to do?!

I am trying to backup my 3 directories (within those directories there are files & more directories) which have various files.
I can easily put them into a tar.bz2 [using this command: tar cvjf file.tar.bz2 etc home usr]
but when i extract [using this command: tar xfvz file.tar.bz2] i get...
gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
tar: Child returned status 1
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

And when i try [rpmbuild -ta file.tar.bz2] I get this error:
error: Name field must be present in package: (main package)
error: Version field must be present in package: (main package)
error: Release field must be present in package: (main package)
error: Summary field must be present in package: (main package)
error: Group field must be present in package: (main package)
error: License field must be present in package: (main package)

Please help me out

I wish there was an easy RPM program builder :S

I'm completely lost here.

Did anyone ever figure out what the point of the poll was? There's no question, its just a bunch of options?

Personally I would consider converting a tar file into an RPM to generally be a waste of time. A tar archive (Tape ARchive), like a cpio archive, is just a way to collect a set of files into a single file or onto a tape or other piece of media.

RPMs and the UNIX System V package tools extract/store one of more cpio archives with data to create a "package". A tar archive could just as easily be stored in the package. Over the years I have found that tar's options are must easier to use than cpio's options. Both of these utilities operate on the premise that the current directory is the root directory to use for creating or extracting files from the archive. While a package includes "dependency" data this information may not always be correct for all distribution.

If you are planning to distribute software I would create both RPM packages and "tarballs". If you are doing backups of a system I would stick with a "tarball".

The first error is that you compressed with bzip2 (the j option) and tried to decompress with gzip (the z option).

Building an RPM package generally requires specific information and requirements for the package that is being constructed. Remember RPM packages would generally be used to distribute binaries, such as OpenOffice or FireFox, for other systems. As a part of the install process checks are performed to insure that all of the requirements to use the binaries are satisfied prior to actually installing the RPM package. This would include things such as libraries, or other executables. Doing a system backup, based upon your example tar command, would not normally be done with a package manager.