RPM installation nightmares.....

Im new to Linux and have read all the great things about RPM's, but
whenever I try to install anything it always failes due to
dependencies. At time 20 or more. I tried installing those missing
files from the RH Cd's but only a few (like 2-3) are contained......I
then need to search the web with obscure .so file names and get them
individually from many many sites which is terrible time consuming and
frustrating. Not all are on the RH website. How can anyone find rpms
so great??

Question:

Should I just resort to downloading the .tar or .gz version of
programs instead of RPMs? Or am I doing wrong.

Thanks

> Im new to Linux and have read all the great things about RPM's, but
> whenever I try to install anything it always failes due to
> dependencies. At time 20 or more. I tried installing those missing
> files from the RH Cd's but only a few (like 2-3) are contained......I
> then need to search the web with obscure .so file names and get them
> individually from many many sites which is terrible time consuming and
> frustrating. Not all are on the RH website. How can anyone find rpms
> so great??

RPM's are a blessing and a curse. As to which side they're closest,
that's a matter of personal opinion. My personal opinion is that they're
a tool of Satan himself. As time goes on, RPM seems more and more like
something Microsoft would produce. But again, that's just personal
opinion.

> Should I just resort to downloading the .tar or .gz version of
> programs instead of RPMs? Or am I doing wrong.

If you stick to one or the other, life should stay pretty simple. If
you try to mix the two, then you should be pretty familiar with each.
Here's a quick example of just *one* of the reasons:

You have package XYZ installed via RPM. A large security hole is
discovered in XYZ, but your vendor isn't the quickest at getting it
patched. You download XYZ-n.m.o.tar.gz, unpack, run "./configure; make ;
make install". Guess what! "./configure" probably didn't put executables
and libraries in the same place as the old ones, so now you have TWO
versions laying around, and then it comes down to which is found in the
search path first. Sooner or later, that will cause oddities.

So, you decide you'll do "rpm -e XYZ". Woops, so many dependencies!
Well, we'll do "rpm -e --nodeps XYZ". There, it's gone. Oh, no! Now
half of your system is unusable!

That last statement really wasn't an exageration. Just for fun, on a
fresh RedHat 8.0 (or was it 9.0?) installation, I removed the Perl
package. The system became pretty close to completely unusable. *VI*
wouldn't even load without Perl installed. There's something
fundamentally wrong with that, and it's wrong in a very Microsoftian way.

steve

In article <7c95a7ea.0306260931.fd3ac2a@posting.google.com> , Joseph Rivera
wrote:

> Should I just resort to downloading the .tar or .gz version of
> programs instead of RPMs? Or am I doing wrong.

Others have already responded with their very eloquent opinions about RPM,
and I agree fully. What they didn't say is, go to http://rpmfind.net for
all your rpm needs. You can search by package name or by a filename such
as those dreaded .so files.

Or, install apt.

Or, install Red Carpet by Ximian.

Since you are a newbie, I don't recommend installing a lot of source
packages until you find out how to turn them into rpms. However horrible
RPM is, package management is good for you, belive you me :) If you do
need to compile something on your own, look for a package called
'checkinstall' and turn them into RPM packages with that.

--
Juha Siltala

Joseph Rivera wrote:

[snipped
> Should I just resort to downloading the .tar or .gz version of
> programs instead of RPMs? Or am I doing wrong.

..... you could use 'apt'/'apt4rpm'

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, # Black holes result
skydiver, and author: "Inside Linux", # when God divides the
"C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" # universe by zero

mjt wrote:

> Joseph Rivera wrote:
>
> [snipped
>> Should I just resort to downloading the .tar or .gz version of
>> programs instead of RPMs? Or am I doing wrong.
>
> .... you could use 'apt'/'apt4rpm'
>

It's often not as bad as it looks, there is often more than one of the
dependencies in the one package.
I usually install from a tty and have my browser on the gui connected to
http://rpmfind.net
I do and rpm -Uvh install of the rpm I want
then if a dependency comes up I do a search for the package, install that
and then try the original install again. Ok sometimes it takes a while but
often not as long as it seems at first. It just takes a little patience..


--
Linux users do not suffer fools gladly
If I seem intolerant of you see above.

On 26 Jun 2003 10:31:13 -0700,
Joseph Rivera <jrivera@coffeechemistry.com> wrote:
> Im new to Linux and have read all the great things about RPM's, but
> whenever I try to install anything it always failes due to
> dependencies. At time 20 or more. I tried installing those missing

Use mandrake and urpmi.