Dammned software manager (rpminst)

[LiNuts]

I have been trying to add a local dir to the software manager, it accepts it, but wont save it, I have tried about a dozen times. I have a heap of rpms i have downloaded and they are installed in my /home/linuts/dload dir,

I selected local from the drop down box and gave it a name "dloadrpm" but when it starts to reread the sources it has not got my local dir in it.
Cheers
LiNuts

[LiNuts]

Surely there must be a Drake Guru here somewhere..
How can i add a local source to rpminst??

Using Mandrake8.0 and kde2.1 (among others).
Also while i'm asking for advice, This so called software manager is very finicky somtimes. Sometimes it runs o.k. and other times it freezes after reading disk1 (install).

I would use kpackage except it doesn't resolve dependencies.

Cheers
LiNuts

[Spot]

Not sure what you mean by "accepts it, but wont save it". Do any errors show up?
Does the new local source have a ../base/hdlist.cz file showing what's there? If not, then the software manager has no way to read and store the information about the files that are stored there.

[nfallon]

Hi LiNuts,

I have Mandrake 8.1 installed and have no problem creating a directory and then pointing to it from the software manager as a source. Everything saves fine. It may be a problem with 8.0.

Neil

[LiNuts]

Not sure what you mean by "accepts it, but wont save it". Do any errors show up?
Does the new local source have a ../base/hdlist.cz file showing what's there? If not, then the software manager has no way to read and store the information about the files that are stored there.

Ah Ah, I think we may be getting somewhere, although i dont have a clue as to what an ../base/hdlist.cz file is.

I thought that when i run the software manager (the little blue icon - rpminst) it reads (sometimes) the Mandrake install cd (disk1) and the Mandrake ext cd (disk2). when i 1st ran it it asked if i wanted to do a security update, i said no, then it proceeded to read the above cd's. After it has read them ( i presume this is the hdlist.cz file as no cd's are in the drive) it builds a list of either installed or available software.
I have a lot of dloaded rpms in my /home/linuts/dload dir. And i want to be able to use rpminst to install them. So i added a local source and named it dloadrpm then i said o.k. and it went and read the above cd's again but no dloadrpm that i had created as a local source.
Do i have to create some sort of .cz file for rpminst to read ? I thought that was what it was doing when i added the local source to it.
[me=LiNuts]confused.[/me]
Cheers
LiNuts

[Spot]

Do i have to create some sort of .cz file for rpminst to read ? I thought that was what it was doing when i added the local source to it.

I don't believe the software manager creates those files - just reads/stores them.

Just this minute I created a 'local source' for the software manager and pointed it to a directory where I have a few obscure rpms stored. The software manager accepted the source, but when I searched for specific packages that I knew for a fact were there in that source, it didn't come up with any search results. With that in mind, I'm pretty sure that the S.M. does need some sort of "list" of the files located there. How to go about creating one though, I've no idea.

FYI - if you do install one of those rpms manually, the software manager *will* take note of the package that was installed. Update the lists if you manually installed something while the software manager was running.