Hi, I have a rather unusual problem that I have encountered while trying to install rpm files on Mandrake 10.1. For example, I tried to install foobillard using urpmi and the Mandrake control centre but both methods reported that the files were already installed - I know that they are not. I then sourced the rpm from the net and tried to install but it won't install because the system says that it already is installed. This has happenned with several applications now and is beginning to get to me. Does the system store a list of installed packages, and if so, could mine be corrupted in some way?

Any help or guidance would be great

Thanks in advance

will103

not sure if this is right, but a rpm -qa | grep package name

should let you see if it's already installed.

Do as junior said.

To check if your package list is corrupt or not type in

rpm -qa

If eventually the long list ends and you are brought back to to a prompt, then your package list if fine.

You may indeed have the package installed, but it may not appear in the menu.

In this case you'll have to issue the

update-menus

command and wait up to 15 minutes for it to complete (note: the prompt usually comes back right away!).

Hi, thanks for your suggestions but the problem is still there.

I tried running rpm -qa | grep foobillard

[root@6225212820 will]# rpm -qa | grep foobillard
[root@6225212820 will]#

Then tried running rpm -qa and all seems fine (except no foobillard) - truncated output for sanity

[root@6225212820 will]# rpm -qa
initscripts-7.61.1-11mdk
fontconfig-2.2.96-6mdk
libbonobo2_0-2.6.2-1mdk
gdk-pixbuf-loaders-0.22.0-3mdk
xinitrc-2.4.10-1mdk
.
.
.
.
libkdebase4-nsplugins-3.2.3-99mdk
fonts-ttf-vera-1.10-3mdk
qiv-2.0-1mdk
libPropList0-0.10.1-9mdk
pythonlib-1.28-5mdk
ncftp-3.1.8-1mdk
iptables-1.2.9-5mdk

Then tried to install foobillard via urpmi

[root@6225212820 will]# urpmi foobillard
Everything already installed

Finally tried to see if foobillard was in my file path

[root@6225212820 will]# foobillard
bash: foobillard: command not found

Finally - updating the menus made no difference either.

Cheers

will103

I don't think it's just you will103, plus the error doesn't seem to be just reporting that things are there when they arent.

For example, I installed 10.1 yesterday from the cover of this months linux format. I routinely do an install, then add the various urpmi sources from "easy urpmi", then start the process of applying any updates.

But now it seems that when I try to get the updates, it doesn't matter which mirrors I've used as urpmi sources it tells me that a problem has occured. This is the same as when I try and select a package for installation I either cant select a package or it errors when it starts the install.

Dunno, I haven't decided yet. I might say bollocks to mandrake and go for either debian via knoppix (as in installing knoppix to my hard drive) or gentoo.

At least with those distros, you can update the whole distro, and don't have to wait for stupid faults to be fixed with the current mandrake release routine - especially if it's the package manager thats been screwed up in the first place!

Though I may just say bollocks to 10.1 and revert to 10.0 we'll see eh ?

regards

John

Do it the "hard" way then

Go to the directory containing the foobillard rpm on the CD...

then

rpm -Uvh --force foobiilard*.*

Unfortunately the "Community" release is a kind of release candidate/bugfix.

By the time the "Official" versions come out many of these problems and bugs are documented and resolved.

This is why I'm still running 10.0 until I see an Offical release and have a chance to read the errata.

You are not the only one reporting this problem with RPM's not being installed yet appearing to be reported as so by rpm and urpmi.

I haven't seen this with 10.0 Official though.

i haven't had too many problems with installing rpm's, but then again i have only installed pico via urpmi and maybe one or two other things, and i have installed my ATI drivers. that's about it. I'll see if I can't reproduce a problem. I don't mind messing things up, as this is just a learning linux type thing, so if I royally screw up, I usually just reinstall if i can't fix it.

Thankyou all for your replies to my post. Apart from this problem with rpms I have found Mandrake 10.1 to be very stable.

bigjon, I think I'm with you in the long run and will probably transfer to Knoppix on at least one of my boxes. I installed it on one of my old PCs at work this afternoon as a test and it looks really promising.

opjose, thanks for the suggestion - I will try that now. I realise that the CE edition is a bit of a work in progress.

Cheers

will103

Junior41180,

Forgot to say that I would be interested to see if you have the same difficulties as me.

Thanks

will103

what exactly is this anyway? Like what kind of proggie is it, so i can at least know what menu to look at.

Yeah I still wonder if his RPM database is somehow corrupt given that it installed properly for you.

Will103,

When I posted last, I was mega stressed as I was getting absolutely no-where.

In a "fit of pique" I said "bollocks to it" and threw the knoppix disc in and did the and all seemed to go reasonably well until I rebooted.

Or not as the case turned out. There was an error in the bootloader. I was bloody disappointed. Perhaps I'd better download a newer version (currently got 3.3!).

So in the short term, I've re-installed mandrake 10.0 official, but I also went and ordered a couple of gentoo discs (genuine ones) from the gentoo project.

When they turn up, I'm gonna install that instead, because like debian/knoppix/etc etc it wouldn't need to be upgraded like lots of the RPM based ones, because you can do it all via the package installer.

I've had gentoo installed before, it may be a bugger to install, but it's a dream to manage.

Regards

John

Junior41180, foobillard is a 3d pool emulator.

Sorry to hear that the knoppix install didn't go very well bigjohn - my install at work went ok. The only thing I noticed, though I haven't spent much time with it yet, is that all the permissions (such as for mounting floppy disks) are set up for root - not surprising since that is how it performs as a CD distro. Another odd thing was the file system setup (to me anyway, but I don't know much about Linux). The mnt directory has floppy and CDROM directories, and these are the mount points specified in /etc/fstab, but these are symbolic links to /floppy and /CDROM.

I am pretty definate now that I am going to go for knoppix (or Debian) as my main distro. Last night I tried the "brute force" option that you suggested opjose, at which point I was prompted to satisfy a dependancy. When I tried to install the required package - guess what - it told that it was already installed. Around about this point I pulled most of my remaining hair out and gave up

Thanks for all of your help.

Will103