Introduction

This document addresses solutions/work-arounds to some of the problems I (Kevin Masaryk) have encountered while using 'rpmdrake' (aka 'Software Manager').

'rpmdrake' is a package management tool for working with RPM files. It is actually just a GUI front-end to 'urpmi'. 'urpmi' is the engine which 'rpmdrake' depends upon.

The only documentation available for 'rpmdrake' lies within the Mandrake Users Guide. There is no man page for 'rpmdrake'.

*Note concerning all problems: the operation of 'rpmdrake' doesn't appear to be consistent between each execution; what I mean is that it doesn't always act the same way or present the same data each time it is run. Many of the problems encountered with rpmdrake can be resolved by simply exiting and restarting the program.

Also, you will need to be logged in as 'root' to perform most of the solutions presented here.

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"I've lost everything: media sources, install groups, and uninstall groups."

For obvious reasons, this is the most severe, and annoying, problem with rpmdrake. This problem has been known to occur even after a new installation of Linux-Mandrake.

The first thing to check is that the rpm database of what's installed on your system is intact. An easy way to do this is to try using 'gnorpm' or something similar.
In the unlikely event that you can't find any packages which are currently installed on your system in 'gnorpm', then your RPM database is probably corrupted or missing and needs to be rebuilt. Check the man page for 'rpm' (man rpm) to see how to do this ... or, if you're lazy: it's done with this command

rpm --rebuilddb

Next, browse the man pages for 'urpmi' to get an idea of how it works. The following is a list of 'urpmi's configuration files, with their descriptions, taken straight from the urpmi(8) man page (edited for grammar):

• '/usr/bin/urpmi'
  The urpmi executable (Perl script).

• '/var/lib/urpmi/list.*'
  Contains the list of all packages known by urpmi and their location.  There is one file list per media(*).

• '/var/lib/urpmi/hdlist.*'
  Contains information about all known packages; it's a summary of rpm headers. There is one file list per media(*).

• '/etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg'
  Contains one line "name" "url" per media.

• '/var/lib/urpmi/depslist.ordered
  A simple text file containing all dependencies of all known packages.

• '/var/lib/urpmi/provides'
  A simple text file containing all provides and the list of associated packages which contain the provides.

• '/var/lib/urpmi/compss'
  A simple text file containing the list of packages for each Group used.

Have a look at the '/var/lib/urpmi' directory. You shouldn't have any 'hdlist.*' files. If you do, use

urpmi.removemedia

to remove the media or use the brute-force method and just delete them (not recommended).
Example:

urpmi.removemedia cdrom1

Next, have a look at the '/etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg' file. This file should either be empty (since you've lost all your media) or every line should be commented out (i.e. has a '#' sign in front of it).
Since we want to start clean, use an editor and delete all duplicate lines in this file. Hopefully, you'll be left with a few commented-out lines relating to the original installation CDs which you got with Mandrake.
Here's what a 'normal' urpmi.cfg file should look like for a Mandrake 7.2 Complete installation (plus an FTP media I created):

cdrom1 removable_cdrom_0://mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS
cdrom2 removable_cdrom_1://mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS2
cdrom3 removable_cdrom_2://mnt/cdrom/RPMS3
cdrom4 removable_cdrom_3://mnt/cdrom/RPMS4
ftp_depot file://home/ftp/RPM_depot/ 

Now use 'urpmi.addmedia' to add media. Here's an example:

1. Put CD1 of Mandrake Linux in your CDROM drive.

2. Type

   urpmi.addmedia removable_cdrom_0://mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS

   (That's one line) * Again, if this doesn't work, the brute-force method is just to add the lines in manually and then use urpmi.updatename.

After adding all of your media, you should be able to start 'rpmdrake' and have everything back to normal...hopefully ;-).

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"I get false results when looking for a new RPM after updating my media."

You'll find the RPMs you've just added via the new media in the Package Groups window on the left. A search for the new RPM(s) will return false until you restart 'rpmdrake'.

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"I've added CD media but the RPMs aren't showing up."

If you go to User->Preferences->Add media(button) and select CDROM as the "Type of media," you are only able to select the name of the CD and a "CDROM number" identifier.
This may prevent you from using non Mandrake distribution CDROMs with RPMs on them, such as Red Hat CDs. The reason is that urpmi needs to know the exact directory which contains the RPMs and 'rpmdrake' may or may not report the location properly. Your options are to either: select "Local" as the "Type of media" and enter the full path to the RPM dir, or add the media with 'urpmi.addmedia' (best choice).
The following is a list of the CDs distributed with Mandrake 7.2 Complete and the location of the RPM dirs on them (relative from mount directory):

• CDROM1 Installation: 'Mandrake/RPMS/'
• CDROM2 Extension: 'Mandrake/RPMS2/'
• CDROM3 1st Application: 'RPMS3/'
• CDROM4 2nd Application: 'RPMS4/'

Here's how we'd add CD1 with 'urpmi.addmedia':

urpmi.addmedia removable_cdrom_0://mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS

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"rpmdrake is listing multiple copies of every package."

Try checking your '/etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg' file for duplicate entries. If you find any, make sure they're commented ('#') out. Additionally, you'll probably need to use 'urpmi.removemedia' to remove the duplicate media offender and 'urpmi.addmedia' to re-add the media.

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