I've broken my mandrakelinux installing perl-base
 

Thanks for reading this thread. I'm sorry the thread title is a little vague but I don't know exactly what I've done.

Anyway, here is all the information I can give you - I was trying to install spamassassin on to my Mandrake Linux 10.0 using - spamassassin-3.0.0-0.rc4.1mdk.i586.rpm.

I got the following message - unsatisfied perl-Mail-SpamAssassin[== 3.0.0-0.rc4.1mdk].

I then tried to install perl-Mail-SpamAssassin-3.0.0-0.rc4.1mdk.i586.rpm and got this error message - unsatisfied perl-base[>= 2:5.8.5].

I therefore installed perl-base-5.8.5-3mdk.i586.rpm. During installation I got a warning saying that some files had to be removed before the installation could continue. I decided that it must know what it is doing and if the files needed to be removed then they would be replaced during the installation, I therefore hit continue and the installation was completed.

I then went back to install perl-Mail-SpamAssassin-3.0.0-0.rc4.1mdk.i586.rpm and the system wouldn't run the package installer so i went looking for it on the start menu and it wasn't there. There are also lots of links missing e.g. To my mail proram Ximian, to Firefox and openoffice. These are the problems that are immediately apparent I don't know the full scale of my destruction.

I thought if I started a root session everything would be okay over there but the problems are exactly the same.

So my questions are

1. If I finished installing perl-Mail-SpamAssassin-3.0.0-0.rc4.1mdk.i586.rpm and spamassassin-3.0.0-0.rc4.1mdk.i586.rpm do you think it would solve my problems? How can i intall them if I can't open the package installer?

2. I hope that I have "linking" problems and someody here will give me a magic command and everything will be fixed.

3. Where can I find a log file for the perl-base installation? I guess I can find out exactly what is broken with this log (I doubt if I'll understand the log but I could post it here).

If anybody can help at all or can answer one or all of my questions I'll be eternally grateful - please be gentle with any answers or questions because I'm a total Linux newbie (I just hate spam)

Thank you
Ethereal

Which command you had used to install the package?
- urpmi
- rpm
- rpmdrake

?

Thanks for replying Eule.

I double clicked on the RPM file and the software installer popped up. I assume it was rpmdrake although I didn't have a clue what it was called until you asked.

Ethereal

Okey. Try this.

go into shell an login as root.

type:

If urpmi doesn't work you should configure it.

(If you have broadband connections). Its oft easier to use urpmihttp://easyurpmi.zarb.org

Thanks Eule that command worked and I was able to install spamassassin:)

Unfortunately it has not solved my problems:(

It was a good try though, I'll just have to try something else.

Ethereal

Do you know which packages were removed? or is it that your only missing the links in the menu?

please write your problems exactly. So I'll try to help you.

I'm not very sure where the files get installed to, so I don't know if they are missing.

I searched for firefox and ximian and I didn't find any but the names may be abbreviated.

I can probably install everything again but I think my main problem is that when I click on Menu-->System-->Configuration there used to be a link to package configuration which is not there now. I don't think this specific problem is not just a link in the menu because previously when I double clicked on a RPM file the software installer automatically loaded. Now when I double click it opens up a Open With dialogue box.

First. I've got a basic question. Have you already restarted your X, KDE/Gnome oder system?

Yes. My computer is setup to automatically start X (KDE) and logme in.

???. Sometimes you have to restart your X after installing any rpms. Have you already?
A short while ago I'd installed a rpm. Nothing worked until a have restart my KDE.

I have rebooted the computer so that should have restarted X I think and I still have the problem

I'm sorry. i can't understand it.
what happends if you type into the shell :

- firefox
- ximian
- ooffice (you was looking for?)
- rpmdrake (root only)

Have you update Mandrake 10.0 ?

In 'drakeconf' under System -> Menu -> you can update you links, you know?

I typed firefox, ximian, ooffice and rpmdrake (as root) -

[ethereal@10 ethereal]$ firefox
bash: firefox: command not found
[ethereal@10 ethereal]$ ximian
bash: ximian: command not found
[ethereal@10 ethereal]$ ooffice
bash: ooffice: command not found
[ethereal@10 ethereal]$ su
Password:
[root@10 ethereal]# rpmdrake
bash: rpmdrake: command not found
[root@10 ethereal]#


I opened menudrake but I don't think that this will help as you can see above I am unable to run them from the shell so I don't think I can link to them in the menu.

Thanks for your help.
I appreciate it

ohhhh no. It seems you deinstalled the packages.

You can try to locate the path, but i think they are nowhere.

oder somthing else

if you can find the path, check it if it there an executable.

I tried what you suggested and whereis did not find a path for firefox or more importantly rpmdrake.

Do you have any idea how to get rpmdrake working again?

If urpmi is still working you can use it.

(but from the official homepage is the better solution.

ALWAYS let urpmi do things for you, such as installing packages. You can also utilize "Install Software" from the menu.

As root from the text console ([CTRL][ALT][F1])

Mount your Mandrake CD-rom disk and change to the directory containing the rpm's.

Once there type:

urpmi kde*.* menu*.*

You will get some messages about some things already being installed and other messages about also needing to install other packages.

Say YES to any message that may pop up.

Once it's done type in

service dm stop

Wait about 5-8 minutes and then type

service dm start

Hopefully things will be ok after this.

You may also have to do this with the second Mandrake Disk as well.

Your right. I followed the link you gave me earlier to Easy Urpmi and I was running that while you helped me.

When it finished I was able to urpmi rpmdrake :)

and also urpmi firefox :) it isn't the newest version but at least it's back.

I'll just have to play around for a couple of days and find what else I've broken and hopefully use urpmi to fix it.

Thanks again for giving me your time Eule:)

You are right about urpmi it is f%^&ing brilliant. I thought you could only install from source (100% nightmare) or use the RPMs (50% nightmare)

opjose - will this process just rebuild the menu or reinstall the menu items and hopefully fix all my problems?

I'll give it a go either way.

Thank you to you for giving me your time.

Usually this will undo the damage as it causes the original installation scripts to be re-executed.

I've often fixed some very severe problems caused by my own screwing around, this way.

It always pays to know which files you changed.

That way you can query rpm to find out the package that will restore operation instead of the blanket approach I gave you.

Lets say I screw up xdm and it no longer works.

Ok first I query rpm


rpm -qf /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession

or any of the xdm files I may have overwritten, erased, etc.

it comes back and tells me the name of the rpm which has the original file.

Pop the disk in, and urpmi or rpm -Uvh --force the file and you are back in business.

The menus are built dynamically via a script called update-menus.

It is likely that you have either screwed it up or screwed up something upon which update-menus depends.

One thing you can do is find the rpm containing update-menus and work backwards so to speak.

First re-install the package which contains update-menus, then run update-menus, and wait 15 minutes to see if your menus come back.

If no luck, find the packages upon which it depends using RPM. Re-install those. Try again. If still no luck keep working backward.

I wish there was a way to tell urpmi to force an install of a particular package and work backward "X" levels installing all the prior dependancies as well. That would be a quick and easy way to recover from major damage.

If you do have an operational RPM there are a few other things you can do...

For instance.

Tar off everything in /etc, then dump the existing list of installed packages...

i.e.

rpm -qa >> installed_files

Then boot from a Live CD of any distro, mount your Linux partitions and erase ALL but /etc/fstab and your home directories.

/etc/ contains your important customizations which will get restored a bit later.

Now re-install Linux telling it to use existing partitions (this will cause it to find the /etc/fstab file and use it!

Once done, set up your RPM sources as before and then

urpmi <<installed_files

urpmi will re-install EVERYTHING you had on your system before "fresh".

Now restore /etc from your prior tar backup.

All of your inconsistencies or erroneously overwritten files are fixed (except for /etc entries)

Thanks opjose everything seems to be working now. I reinstalled Firefox, Ximian Evolution, rpmdrake, harddrake and samba. I also rebuilt the menu as advised. I managed to install spamassassin using urpmi and it went well(using an RPM was how I screwed it up earlier). I even managed to itegrate it with evolution and it's filtering my spam:)

I'll keep the information you and Eule gave me handy for the next time I screw up:)

It only took 11hours to fix it this time I'm getting better :)

My wife thinks me and my linux box are conjoined.


Ethereal

Great!