10.2 Packages In Opensuse 10.3 Alpha5 ?

Hello all, my first post here.

I'm a (open)Suse newbie, been using everything else (Arch, Frugal, Zenwalk, (K)/(X)/Ubuntu, Gentoo, Sabayon, Pardus, Vector, PCLinuxOS, Sidux, Fedora, Mandriva, Mint, the list goes on...) but now trying out 10.3 (alpha5, torrent downloaded in a few hours from now).
I was wondering, can I install (for example from packman repos) software on 10.3 Alpha5,even though the package is ment for 10.2 ?
If the dependencies of a package are satisfied, is there any reasons why I couldn't install a RPM for 10.2, on 10.3 ?
Take for example this package here, can I install it on 10.3alpha5 without problems ? :blink:

Sorry for the n00b question, I'm just not familiar with (open)Suse or RPMs, but willing to learn.

//Aku

If the dependencies can be met, then theoretically you can, assuming there are no incompatibilities with newer libraries or any such thing.

However, you could bork yourself when it comes to keeping A5 up-to-date from the factory repos. Once you start adding in third-party packages, you may wind up in certain cases breaking your ability to upgrade core packages that Suse is holding back in order to avoid breaking your third-party packages. Anyone that has ever tried to do a version upgrade is familiar with this issue and the impact of locked packages that require extensive manual intervention for dependency resolution.

If you're willing to experiment or you don't mind rolling up your sleeves, you could give it a try. But if you're a noob, I'd maybe think carefully about it. In my experience with Suse development versions, they often break their own dependencies due to rapidly changing/modified packages that can't keep up, it can become even more troublesome when non-Suse packages are included. At the very least, you may want to wait until the betas are available, things become much more stabilized then.

Hope this helps...

Cheers,
KV

ps. thread moved to the "beta" section

I'm a (open)Suse newbie too... in fact i'm a Linux newbie and i must confess that all this "dependencies" thing kind of creepy me out...

I don't think we have this kind of thing on windows... this can in fact scare people out!!!

isn't there a way around this problem to be able to install software without this problems???

will CNR or metapackages solve this???

Thanks!

If Windows had new versions coming out every 6 to 9 months and factory versions in constant flux the way we have with Linux, you would have dependency issues there as well. Just try running certain Vista programs on XP and you will see it in action.

@ John_Thomas

Try the Smart package manager, it is more forgiving with regards to the dependencies.

Take for example this package here, can I install it on 10.3alpha5 without problems ? :blink:

//Aku
[/b]

One sure way is to rebuild the .src.rpm in the new distribution with a new kernel & new libs; like:
"rpmbuild --rebuild packagename.src.rpm"

The Mplayer*.src.rpm is on that page you linked.

In the early days of x86-64, we had to do that a lot.

But if you're a noob, you shouldn't be playing with 10.3, as that is a beta product. Stick with 10.2, your life will be much easier.

I agree. Like I told someone else yesterday, you are much more likely to enjoy SUSE and stick around if it works well. For a newbie to start out learning on Alpha software is just setting yourself up for failure. You will run into problems that you can't solve and pretty soon, you will decide that "Linux Sux" and you will drop it like a hot potato.

but... dependencies are when several programs use one specific file, right? and if we update that file... that may get some problems whit the software that was using it...

that's way some people have problems when upgrading Suse to a new version...

correct me if i'm wrong... or explain what really are those spooky dependencies...

in windows... that something like the shared files...right?

but... dependencies are when several programs use one specific file, right? and if we update that file... that may get some problems whit the software that was using it...

that's way some people have problems when upgrading Suse to a new version...

correct me if i'm wrong... or explain what really are those spooky dependencies...

in windows... that something like the shared files...right?
[/b]

You can't see this in an rpm cause they look like this:
"�����n;&BGU=�e�?��vNh�紴^Z=�A����Un��],����V�I�Y��C
��".�jH��b�j���p����Ս�p�;�D�p��� 5���VL��9�jenm�.Y�/ƪ���`-|ו_��j
��ZWm��T;�Cԓ�U�W���\�+cʒ|;�z��|;T��&ߎ�pj�G.�N�>1� Bz
�_1�R�D�������;��������w���P�:b�.7/��YYPA�`��(A��ӋP�
���W8E��2`^�"

The best way to explain it is to take a look at a "RPM SPEC file example" @ http://kmymoney2.sourceforge.net/phb/rpm-example.html

Drill down to where it says "#Requires:"; note that there is more than one (in some rpms many)
It is up to the person that builds the rpm to list those. Some are libs/lib64s; some can be other apps.

They exist in a TAR under the makefile
They get built into the source (src) rpm
They get built into the rpm.

When you install from a terminal with rpm -ihv, all the dependencies are checked 1st thing
say it tells you that you need xyz.rpm; you get that & that install tells you you need abc.rpm; and so on:
We call that dependency h***.

That's why repos & yast-sources for SmartPM and Yast2 are so important! They check all those for us & go and get the dependent rpm for us given we have the correct repos/yast-sources configured.

Hope this helps...

In my mind the closest lib thing in windows are the .dll files & yes some can be shared files.