messing with rpm database

quatsch · 11-10-2003, 08:44 PM

I will give it a try indeed. First have to do a bit of reading on what exactly goes in a src rpm package; I'm thinking of cannibalizing a small src rpm - I suppose it's still the makefile where the important action is for my purposes (another thing I need to brush up on) - it's been ages since I did anything hands on like this... Hopefully I can give it a shot this weekend.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. It amazes me how fast things go here!

mossy · 11-10-2003, 09:22 PM

Just a suggestion - you could document your steps and post them on here for people who search - or submit them to the answer section of this site. I am sure it would be appreciated.

quatsch · 11-10-2003, 09:56 PM

will do

edbrunelle · 11-10-2003, 11:18 PM

Why not just use checkinstall? It's located at
http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/ .

You change the procedure of
1. ./configure
2. make
3. make install
by replacing step 3 with checkinstall. It will generate an RPM file for you and then install it. Thus the RPM database knows all about it.

quatsch · 11-11-2003, 12:15 AM

That one looks interesting. Will look into it. A question that come to mind. Does it create the right package names so that it will avoid dependency problems - it's no good if it names freetype as 'packageone' or something like that (freetype is just an example; the problem is accross the board since when checking for dependencies rpm seems to look for package names and not what these packages install). Well, I'll have to RTFM, I guess. Thanks for the suggestion

mossy · 11-11-2003, 01:55 PM

Also I found out about alien when reading up.
Alien will let you convert packages between all the package types.
Make sure you read the instructions on useage.
You can preformat packages before converting so that they will appear in the correct locations after converting. This will streamline your OS somewhat and avoid dependancy issues in future.

mossy · 11-11-2003, 03:45 PM

[Further update]

Some other tips that may help you:

[man rpm]
rpm -V [verify]
rpm --test [will check for dependancies without actually installing]

GNOME RPM ~ in terminal run: gnorpm
you can manage your rpm packages here. You can install, uninstall, verify, packages - even from the CR-ROM etc. If you want to install a package you've downloaded, click Add.
Also check out: Find Packages [click on Operations > Find Packages where you can then query, verify or uninstall packages.

Hope this was helpful.

quatsch · 11-12-2003, 12:36 AM

thanks a bunch. I do need to do a lot of reading up. Hopefully I can figure out something nice and easy for all of us too lazy to give up on rpm but want the power of compiling on our own

just something I noticed. I like using madplayer with its libmad. I use mandrake rpms and it takes about a whopping 10% of cpu time (on average) on my celeron 1.1Ghz laptop and about 8% on my 2.4Ghz P4. I compile it myself, it goes down to less than 3% on both and it sounds noticeably better. What's up with that?

AlterEgoTwo · 11-12-2003, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by idaho

fyi, I just checked my debian-testing box and found that freetype 2.1.5-3 was an available package. It won't help you on your rpm based box,

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/RPM-for-Unix-HOWTO-8.html

You could convert the .deb to an rpm, using alien. Never tried it myself, but it might solve the issue.