sofasurfer Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 I had to reinstall AGAIN last night. After I install my system I install packages containing documentation and also I usually find some cool sounding packages to install. Somewhere along the line I glitch my system by causing a freezeup or 'missing package' errors or some other bad thing. Before I screwed up last time I had some Mandriva Documentatio install, I think I install some man page packages and then I attempted to install an info package. I got a installation error and from then on I couldn't access MCC. The info packages available were 1) info-4.8-1.1.20060mdk, 2) info-4.8-11.20060mdk, 3) info-4.8-1mdk, 4) info-install-4.8-1.1.20060mdk, 5) info-install-4.8-1mdk. I don't remember which one I installed that caused the problem. Questions... 1) If everything isn't safe to install way doesn't the system let you know? 2) Some packages contain discriptions and titles that don't explain very well whats its purpose is or how it fits into your system. How do you read a packages information and determine if its safe to install especially when there are multiple similar packages? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 No package should break your system in theory. I wonder how some documentation packages can break your system. They don't have anything to do with the base system. First question is: Did you install the packages that apparently "broke" your system from the CDs/DVD or using easyurpmi? If you installed them from your media, you might have a bad burn. Did you verify the md5sum before you burned your media? Second question is: Was your system really dead? I doubt it. If everything freezes up, it is not caused by some doc-packages but most probably by a hardware problem. If you start your system, take a look at the /var/log/messages file. Most errors are documented there. If its only the graphical interface that breaks, then the error file to look at is /home/username/.xsession-errors. The packages provided are in 99% of cases okay. It CAN be that a packager might have broken the package or that the base code of the app has a flaw. But Mandriva usually takes care that there are no broken packages on the mirrors or on the CDs. Try to install the packages from a terminal next time, using the urpmi command (If you are unfamiliar with it, read the FAQ section of this board). Using the command line will reveal more information why things might not work. Reading package information can be done through the command line, too. In a terminal, type as root "urpmq -fi packagename". There are even more options. Type "urpmq --help" for the full list of options available or "man urpmq". If your system freezes up, try to reset the gui with ctrl+alt+backspace. If you get back to the graphical greeter, it seems to be a software problem. If you are thrown into a command-line environment, you most likely have a hardware problem. What are your system specification? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sofasurfer Posted February 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Thanks. You've given me a few more good tips to add to me 'commands and tips' list. The problems I speak of occured when I used the RPM manager to download them. Heres another example... I just got done downloading mandriva-doc-Drakxtools-Guide-en-2006-6mdk. Previously I had problems with this and after multiple attempts I finally got it. Those attempts were through the rpm manager. This time was similar but resolved itself faster. This time I clicked on the rpm manager 'help' button and since the package wasn't installed, the download proceeded automatically. The download took about 1/2 hour. When download finished I had an error message saying, 'installation failed' and I think 'curl failed'. The package was not installed. So I clicked on the help button again and the download started again. This time It took about 3 seconds. I assume, because the package was really already in the system. Anyway, this time it installed and works fine. I have a lot of problems when installing rpm and I just don't get it. I have just uninstalled 'curl' which will make my default downloader revert to wget(?), I think. I'll see if that makes a differance. I'm in the process of reading up on urpmi and will try some downloading through console, hopefully tonight. Thanks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Curl should be safe (I prefer wget nonetheless) for downloading the packages. It seems as if the problems are related to the software-mirror you selected. Some mirrors work extremely well, others tend to make your life miserable. I tested the package you had some problem with from ftp://mandrake.contactel.cz and I encountered no problems. I used "urpmi --test mandriva-doc-Drakxtools-Guide-en-2006-6mdk". The "--test" option will check if an installation will work before actually installing the package on your system, thus it's another thing you should perhaps add to your "useful commands" list. I recommend to try different software mirrors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted February 21, 2006 Report Share Posted February 21, 2006 Whenever I have encountered the .....curl... error message, I have usually found it was a corrupted file that had been downloaded. It was usually necessary to go into /var/cache/urpmi/rpms and delete the rpm still in there ( in konsole, type in kdesu konqueror and enter then type your root password then enter again. When konqueror opens it will be in root mode so there is no need to log into the root partition but you must still be extremely careful as if you were actually in root....because you are) before downloading the rpm again, preferebly from another mirror site. otherwise urpmi will continue to to try to use the faulty one previously cownloaded. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted February 21, 2006 Report Share Posted February 21, 2006 John, you can clean the cache easily launching urpmi --clean This saves you launching a filebrowser. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted February 21, 2006 Report Share Posted February 21, 2006 Does that clear all that's been downloaded, or just the corrupt one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aioshin Posted February 21, 2006 Report Share Posted February 21, 2006 accoding to man page --clean Remove all packages from the cache in directory /var/cache/urpmi/rpms. . so its supposed to.. . usually a good install will not keep those packages being installed via urpmi on that directory, will only be stored if the installation has been interrupted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted February 21, 2006 Report Share Posted February 21, 2006 Ah OK. I had a corrupt download once so in that case was best to find and delete the corrupt rpm than wipe them all out and start again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted February 22, 2006 Report Share Posted February 22, 2006 You are correct Arctic but I usually like to see what is or isn't in there so as to know what is going on or has happened. Ianws comment explains my reasoning and it has saved me some hassles at times I can tell you. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 In that case, a simple ls /var/cache/urpmi/rpms will show you what is in there. But I agree, the command-line is not everybodys darling and doesn't need to be it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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