ok, i really dont know what i'm doing. i'm trying to install rpmdrake because i think that will make installs a lot easier. but when i typed in
# rpm -i rpmdrake*
i got this response...or sumthin similar
drakxtools > needed for installation of rpmdrake.mdk.i386.rpm
so i tried to install rpmdrake, but it said i needed a bunch more files. eventually, i figured out which files i needed to install that i couldn't find on any of my three installation disks:

libgdk_imlib.so.1
libgdk_pixbuf.so.2
/usr/X11R6/bin/xtest
usermode
lib.crypto.so.0
libssl.so.0

so i searched the internet for these things, and, other than the fact that i dont really know what the files do, i couldn't find them. how to i get these files, what do they do, and what do they mean?

all help i appreciated,
Elise

"drakxtools > needed for installation of rpmdrake.mdk.i386.rpm"
it may have been rpmdrake.mdk.i586.rpm, i'm not sure

you sure rpmdrake isn't already installed? You should be able to see from the mandrake control center (*not* the KDE control conter) under software management. If it isn't installed, try

urpmi rpmdrake

urpmi is a program that takes care of dependencies that you seem to be seeing by installing whatever needs to be installed.

what is the mandrake control center?

are you using KDE? Mandrake control center is under KDE-menu-> configuration

it's a set of tools for making life easier.

i'm not using kde, i'm not using a gui interface. i can't because there's no /etc/shadow file.

rpmdrake cannot be run w/o a gui.

how did you install mandrake? It should've installed an /etc/shadow file. If you can try, I would try do an 'upgrade' install. Start the installlation, press F1 for more option, type expert and then you'll be asked fairly close ot the beginning whether you want a clean install or an upgrade. Choose upgrade and have at least X installed (it will then come with iceWM). It will make your life a lot easier.

ok, well i got a user to work. so how do i run rpmdrake from the gui screen? i tried using xconsole and typing rpmdrake, but i found that i couldnt type anything.

does the keyboard work at all? If you are using KDE, choose 'Run Command' from the KDE menu and see if you can type
rpmdrake

If you can't use your keyboard in X, there's probably something wrong with your configuration of X. The configuration file itself is
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4

You could try if you can configure it using the command from a text terminal (i.e. w/o X)

drakxconf

You have to be root to use this. It will start a menu driven configuration tool and you'll be able to find a section on keyboards.

If this doesn't work, I can't really help you further. The information that will people will need to help you is what you have in the keyboard section of the above file (I think it's 'section input device'; you'll see) and the type of keyboard you have (USB, PS2?).

my keyboard is working fine, i think, but i dont know if i'm in kde. how can i figure that out?

The GUI interface most Linuxes use is called XFree86. XFree86 runs desktop managers such as GNOME and KDE.

If you are running KDE, there should be "K" button at the bottom of the screen where you open programs from. If you are running GNOME, it should be a footprint.

What do you see on your screen when you load your computer? And after you login, what do you see?

after i login there's a blue screen with a clock in the upper right hand corner of the screen. other than that, there's nothing. a menu comes up when i left click on the screen.

When you installed mandrake, did you choose to install either kde or gnome?

i chose to install them both, but i dont think they both completely installed

did you get errors during install? If you did, I'd suggest to reinstall (I hate recommending this but it is probably the easiest for you).

also, when you boot up to single user mode and then do
telinit 3
and login as a user and do
startx /usr/bin/startx

does this start kde? you can tell if it's kde by the K button on the menu bar. You should also see a kde splash screen when it starts up.