rpms

**qin** · 03-27-2005, 02:37 AM

hey everyone, fairly new to linux. running redhat 9, and i've downloaded various rpms for programs as i like them rather than having to compile from sources. my problem is that when i run the rpms, the installer runs and such, then suddenly it quits. the progress bar indicated that it was complete, yet i am unable to find those programs in the menu at all. heck, i cant even find them installed at all. so my question is how do i know if an rpm installed correctly or not. Thanx.

Qin

**comtux** · 03-27-2005, 07:12 AM

Wow Redhat 9 a little outdated.
You are going to have tons of problems with redhat 9 it isnt supported any more.
To be honist with you for a new linux user you are useing a really bad version of redhat it is soooooo slowwwww and depandance hells are going to kill ya.
Not all programs will end up in the menu.
That is because some package manitainers tend to get lazy.
Can you download a differant linux distro off line from distrowatch?

If i was you i would start off with slax.
http://slax.linux-live.org/

Here are a couple of tips for redhat thou
1. Get apt-rpm and synaptic use that to install programs
2. Upgrade everything
3. which (program name your looking for) will tell you were the binary is.
Example:
From the console type.
which bash
Output:
/usr/bin/bash
so bash is at /usr/bin
And you can also try just typeing in the program name at the terminal and see what happens.

95% of programs will eather be in /usr or /opt
so you can look in there.

Just to let you know your not going to be able to run any new programs like openoffice 1.1.4 or 2.0.

**beezlebubsbum** · 04-02-2005, 11:30 PM

you could always just use the command line to install the programs. Just open a terminal, then type:

rpm -ivh "packagename"

Oh, and don't put the quotes in. The command up above tells the rpm package manager to install the package and display a status bar, which is always handy. Are you using Redhat on older hardware? If you're not, then it might be worth looking for a new distro. RPM is pretty pathetic compared to other alternatives, such DEB packages. Go for a debian distro, you'll never look back.

**qin** · 04-03-2005, 05:13 PM

thanks!
yeah, i think i'll be changing distros. probably not to redhat (fedora) now. i do notice that many of the other flavours are well supported with binaries for the programs i want, so there are many to choose from.

Qin