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auto install dependencies


EHCanadian
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what is the package to install that will auto install dependencies rather then going on a 30 hour search for missing packages that require 10 other packages installed so on and so forth as it becomes a greater hassle lol

 

I won't be installing a gui interface so if anyone has non gui command line based recomends?

Edited by EHCanadian
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Seems we have someone who still insists on doing everthing the hardest way possible.

What is wrong with using easy-urpmi and setting up so that Mandrake Control Centre (MCC) can do the job for you ???.

Sorry I cannot help you because I am not a masochist. :D

 

Cheers. John.

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Awwww, A.J. who needs GUIs...:-) I'm not into self-abuse either, that's why I mostly avoid GUI stuff.

 

EHCanadian, this should help. Just skip through the very basic stuff for n00bs you already know. I'll leave it in for any who might read this thread. I'm too lazy to edit it out for ya anyway...

 

**Basic urpmi setup and usage**

 

Urpmi will easily and automagically take care of finding, downloading and installing software and its dependencies, if any. The "Software Management" utility in Mandrake/Mandriva Control Center is a simple to use GUI frontend for urpmi (think of it as roughly the equivilent to "Add/Remove Software" in Windows Control Center). But it's also very easy and more powerful to use urpmi from the command line.

 

Of course you can install software from your CDs, but to best use either the GUI installer or urpmi manually, if you have a broadband connection it's best to set up online sources for downloading/installing/updating software. To do this you need to know how to 'su' to root, which is very simple. Just open a terminal and at the '$' prompt do this:

 

$ su

Password: <type.your.root.password>

#

 

Note that the cursor changed from '$' to '#' indicating you now have 'root' administrator rights, so be careful! Think of this as similar to the difference between being a 'user' or an 'administrator' in Win2k/XP. If you don't fully understand the 'su' process or root permissions some simple Googling will explain it.

 

Now to setup your online software sources. Go here:

 

http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/

 

Follow the directions to setup your online package sources. Choose them carefully, staying with sources for your particular version of Mandrake/Mandriva. You'll want to add the main sources for your distro version,the updates, Contrib, PLF free and non-free, and maybe some others like the Seer of Souls rpms.

Warning: Add the Cooker sources at your own risk. Cooker is beta stuff still in testing for the next release and may or may not cause you problems.

 

When you've finished setting up your source mirrors you can start using the real power of urpmi. You can now install/uninstall a package using your newly-setup online sources either by using the GUI installer in Mandrake/Mandriva Control Center, or better, by using urpmi manually from the command line.

 

To install manually with urpmi open a terminal, 'su' to root, then type:

 

# urpmi -v <packagename> ('-v' for verbose output is optional, but I like the extra info it provides)

 

Note that usually <packagename> can be just the 'simple' version. Using the text email client Mutt for an example, instead of typing the full package name:

 

# urpmi -v mutt-1.5.9i-8mdk.i586.rpm

 

Use:

 

# urpmi -v mutt

 

That's it! That's all you have to do do install! With that simple command urpmi will automagically go to the 'Net sources you choose, find and download the latest available Mutt rpm for your version of Mandrake/Mandriva, grab any other packages needed to resolve all dependencies and install everything in the correct order. If urpmi can't complete the installation, either because all the required software isn't available on the source mirrors you choose or possibly some other conflict(s), it will stop the install process before actual changes are made and give you some info about the problem.

 

Similarly, for packages you've downloaded and saved just use the 'cd' command to navigate to the directory where you saved them:

 

# cd /mysaved/rpm/is.here

 

Then (for this, you may need to use the full packagename):

 

# urpmi -v <packagename>

 

Uninstalling a package is simply 'urpme' instead of 'urpmi'.

 

Be aware that while using rpms compiled for other versions of Mandrake/Mandriva or for other distros sometimes will work fine, they may not and the possibility for problems exists. Think of this as similar to installing Windows software where installing something on Win98 but meant for XP (or vice-versa) may not work. The software should be compiled for use with the distro and version it's installed on. So always try to use correct rpms for your distro and version whenever possible, which in the case of Mandrake/Mandriva is almost always. If you must use a rpm from another version or distro, it may or may not work.

 

But unlike Windows, Linux and urpmi allows you to first do a 'test' installation instead of having to just try installing and see what happens. To do a test install, do this:

 

# urpmi -v --test <packagename>

 

This does a 'dry run' to check if the package(s) can be sucessfully installed but without actually changing anything on the system. If all is well, remove the '--test' switch to install normally.

 

It's important to always install rpms, not from tarballs (.targz, .tar.gz, which are often raw source code) when using any rpm-based distro like RedHat, Suse or Mandriva, at least until you have a good understanding of just what you're doing. This is also true of '.deb' package based distros such as Debian or Ubuntu. Why? Because if you always install rpms (or .debs), then Mandriva's urpmi (or Suse's YAST, Debian's apt or whatever package manager) is able to properly keep track of everything installed on your system and so keep everything correctly configured, updated and avoid conflicts. But if you install any packages from source tarballs no information about that package or the files it installed are entered into the urpmi database. You then have a situation where urpmi may not properly keep things straight since it has no info about the installed tarballs or their contents. The chances of installing from tarballs breaking anything is fairly slight, but it can happen, so why risk it if you don't have to? Also, software installed from a rpm package is often easier to uninstall than that installed from a tarball.

 

Sometimes a particular piece or a newer version of software may only be available as a source tarball. No problem. It's very easy make your own rpms from source tarballs with a handy utility called checkinstall, included on the Mandriva CDs. In a nutshell, checkinstall makes a simple .rpm package by replacing the traditional compile and install commands:

 

./configure

make

make install

 

With:

 

./configure

make

checkinstall

 

I won't go into more detail about checkinstall here. Google for more info about it or install the checkinstall package and type 'man checkinstall' in a terminal.

 

This should be enough to get you going. For more info, open a terminal and type 'man urpmi" or do some Googling, particularly 'easy urpmi'.

Lotsa info available.

Edited by Crashdamage
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