Hi folks,,, it's the first time I get here, and I got some troubles with RPM's, well, everything started when I installed my first linux Slackware 9.1, well, it was painfull for me, used to use windows get to know the linux system, but I'm still trying, well every time that I try to install a rpm file the program says that a lot of dependencies is missing, but it's stranger, I did a full install and this linux is NEW, so what can be wrong? well, then I got the new version of slackware 10, and I got the same problem, and I did a full install, it's stranger for me, it's seems that linux is so complicated to install a simple software, I want to know, how to rise above these problems, with rpm and others packages "if they have this problem of dependencies too", well thanks in advance for you all,,, I hope I could install a rpm soon,,,

bye!!! folkss

Slackware is not an RPM based distro. We hate RPMs too

you can try rpm2targz and compile from source, or find it in .tgz format, which slackware uses.
try linuxpackages.net or slackcare.com

What program were you trying to install?

Hey,

I'm not sure how you are installing the rpm's in slackware -but like FLOODS said, you can use rpm2tgz.

example:

rpm2tgz filename.rpm (enter)

you will then have a new file:

filename.tgz

then type:

installpkg filename.tgz (enter)

OR you can use pkgtool and install from the current directory (as long as the .tgz is in the
same directory you run pkgtool from - comes in handy when installing more then 1 package).


If there are still dependancy issues, post what program you are installing and if someone is
familiar with it, they can help you out. Please don't forget to let us know the program, the
program version, where you obtained the program (web link), the commands you used, and
the error message.

good luck - tw

Just a little tip, you can still use installpkg to install more than one package at a time, simply append them next to each other like so:

Ewww, throw away those RPMs, they're bad for you. If you want to download precompiled packages, look for those of the .tgz variety.

You did a full install, so for most programs just download source, and then:

$ tar -xzvf program.tar.gz
(or for tar.bz2) $ tar -xjvf program.tar.bz2
$ cd whatever
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su -c 'make install'

That's what a full install is good for, put it to work.

You can get a lot of precompiled slackware packages from linuxpackages.net

I would try the --nodeps option when using the rpm command in slackware because the rpm database in slackware is not managed to suit the official slackware installation (e.g you have the required package but in .tgz so rpm does not find it).

rpm -ivh --nodeps <your_rpm>

RPM keeps a database of all the packages you have installed, and checks dependencies against this database when installing new packages. However, it can only keep track of RPM packages that are installed; those installed with any other package manager will have no effect on it.

Since Slackware is not an RPM-based distro, and RPM is only included for the sake of compatibility, your base system is not made up of RPM packages, but rather Slackware's own native .tgz format. As a result, RPM doesn't know about all the installed packages, so its dependency checks will almost always fail. You can get around this problem by either using the --force and --nodeps options in rpm, or you can convert the rpms into slackware packages using rpm2tgz . If I really have to install an RPM, I use the latter approach, and I haven't had any mjor problems with it.

On the other hand, it might be worth making sure there isn't a Slackware package available instead. LinuxPackages has quite a lot of good quality packages.

Unfortunately, lots of hard-to-find source code is only available as RPM or debian packages. So it's good to have rpm2tgz and undeb.
instead of right away installing a converted package. run explode pkg(with the pkg in a separate folder) and have a look. might need to move a few things around to make them Slack-like. then run makepkg and create a new slackpack.

unpack a real slack pkg first and save the /install/slack.desc file to use as a template for your package. edit appropriately. create a /install folder in the top of the folder where you unpacked the package. This file, included in the pkg, insures that pkgtool/removepkg can REALLY remove the files.
or use checkinstall.