I've been using Mandrake 9.1 happily for about a month. Not long ago, I tried to start X and I got an error saying that it couldn't find the X server.

I thought this might have something to do with the fact that the last time I used it (in KDE), I used RPMDrake to uninstall some stuff, including Gnome, to make more space on my disk. That's the only thing I did that I can imagine would cause this kind of problem.

But when I use urpmi to try to reinstall XFree86, after a long pause it says:

Installation failed, some files are missing:
/var/cache/urpmi/rpms/XFree86-4.3-8.2mdk.i586.rpm

And then it recommends updating the urpmi database.

Since then I've tried installing other things, and I always get the same kind of error.

So I have three questions.

1) Is this the right solution in the first place? I'm assuming I somehow uninstalled all or part of X.

2) I know these packages must be on one of the installation CDs. Is the problem that I need to tell it to look there? And, if so, how do I do that?

3) How do I update the urpmi database?

I've been searching all over for a solution to my problem and haven't been able to find anything. I'd really appreciate some help!

Alan

I know what I would do, though this will probably be an unpopular answer. I would do a reinstall, in the "upgrade" mode, which would keep all my files intact but give me back the X Window capability I'd lost. The disadvantage to this brute-force method, which I've used dozens of times when faced with problems I couldn't figure out how to solve, is that I have to reinstall a bunch of custom programs I've been using. I make sure to keep the installation packages for them handy in my home directory so I can do that.

I am an extremely impatient person and the hour or so I spend sometimes doing this is easier on my health than the many hours I would otherwise spend banging my head against a wall.

When I reinstall Mandrake Linux, I use the "expert" option so that I can avoid installing things I don't want, and install a few non-standard ones I do. It doesn't really mean you have to be an expert. It just means you get more control.

that's one of those mysterious error messages. I had it recently and I tried
rpm --rebuilddb
and
urpmi.update -a

which you should try. The first rebuilds the rpm database, the second updates the sources (in case there have been any changes). Unfortunately, it didn't help me. So what I ended up doing is to
urpmi.removemedia -a
which gets rid of all the sources and then set them up again. For the CDs you do

urpmi.addmedia -f CD# removable://mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS

You have to have the CD in the drive and mounted. Look at the CD to find the exact path to the directory containing the rpms - I'm pretty sure the above path is not right.

Have a look at this site, might help you out, it sure did for me.
http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/