Rpm Program Installation - Tips

nevermind, im an idiot...has to be run as root...doh

since we can make our own rpms now, can we upload them here?

maybe make our plf?

Originally posted by linux_learner@Sep 1 2004, 19:04
since we can make our own rpms now, can we upload them here?

maybe make our plf?

One of the admins would have to answer that question but as far as I know, there is no type of ftp server set up for this and I'm not sure it is possible through the web host.

joe, that 42mb that you are seeing for gaim is the uncompressed file size...i just compiled that myself and the actual rpm file size is 13mb, 41.9mb when its unpackaged...13mb is still a bit of a difference from 7.8, but not nearly as big a difference between 7.8 and 42.

I think I'm in a good position to comment on this , so here are my .02EUR:

The quality of RPMs made with checkinstall is very, very poor. It's really more of a "quick hack" than a good way of building stable RPM packages. I never used checkinstall (besides some testing) and never will.

The good way of making RPMs is by writing .spec files, building (with rpmbuild), and testing them. It also requires a little experience to know how your distribution (SuSE Linux, in this case) usually organizes files, how and where (e.g. GNOME stuff in /opt/gnome, KDE stuff in /opt/kde3, PAM configuration files in /etc/pam.d, ...) because they differ on the various RPM-based distributions and sources usually only provide proper defaults for Redhat, if at all.
One also has to provide good integration with the system: init scripts for daemons/services, using proper file locations and directories, ...
That's something checkinstall won't do.

As an example: RPM packages should never install files into /usr/local.
That's for stuff you build from sources, only. It's the whole point of having /usr and /usr/local
If you use checkinstall and don't provide proper flags to ./configure, it won't be integrated properly into the distribution.

Believe me, quality is very important, as having badly organized/integrated packages only proves to be more troublesome than anything else; take usr-local-bin.org's glib/gtk 2.4 packages: they break almost everything unless you really, really know what you are doing and how to handle the issues.

If you really want to get into RPM packaging, read this: Maximum RPM
And then get to know your distribution really well

I've been using every version of SuSE Linux since 5.0 and providing packages for the community since 7.2 - believe me, it's not that trivial.
As the whole idea behind RPM packages is to provide an easy way for users to install software without the hassle of building from sources, having to sort out binary dependencies, etc..., one should really care about quality when releasing RPMs into the (free) world.

BTW, my site is being moved - please give me 2 or 3 days to get everything up and running properly. I'll let you know when it's ready.
Sorry for the unconvenience :huh:

I tried using checkinstall while building smb4k (which by the way is a windows share manager that actually works -- LinNeighborhood is not supported and no longer works).

Doing checkinstall yielded numerous error messages and nothing got made.

But if I ran make install, and then checkinstall, the rpm got made. But it was already installed by then. Sigh.,

hi all

And first of all, thnx for this Site. i'm new to suse Linux, ) but i have based knowledge of linux. i used to use ) Mandrake since V 8 (may be for 2 -3 years now ), but i'm very pleased to use Suse )

SO yesterday was my first try with Yast, and also my first Pb.

i Wanted to install Gcc, make, and kernel- source via Yast.

so from a shell i launched "yast" . i did a search on "Kernel" and then i found "kernel Default" (with an icon in front of it telling i should upgrade") an kernel-source (with a an icon telling it was not installed) --> in fact i didn't install Kernel-source from install CD.

but i was unable to choose "kernel -source " package or other which was not installe on the computer. I could only perform an update of installed packages.

so my question is : How can i install a new package ? (gcc, make, kernel-source) can some tell me ?
is it possible to configure diffrent FTP sources ? is it necessary ?

Thnx for your Help ^^

Lulux

Originally posted by lulux@Sep 14 2004, 04:46
hi all

And first of all, thnx for this Site. i'm new to suse Linux, ) but i have based knowledge of linux. i used to use ) Mandrake since V 8 (may be for 2 -3 years now ), but i'm very pleased to use Suse )

SO yesterday was my first try with Yast, and also my first Pb.

i Wanted to install Gcc, make, and kernel- source via Yast.

so from a shell i launched "yast" . i did a search on "Kernel" and then i found "kernel Default" (with an icon in front of it telling i should upgrade") an kernel-source (with a an icon telling it was not installed) --> in fact i didn't install Kernel-source from install CD.

but i was unable to choose "kernel -source " package or other which was not installe on the computer. I could only perform an update of installed packages.

so my question is : How can i install a new package ? (gcc, make, kernel-source) can some tell me ?
is it possible to configure diffrent FTP sources ? is it necessary ?

Thnx for your Help ^^

Lulux

If you have the personal edition you will need to add ftp sources. Personal doesn't come with these packages so the options will be greyed out until you point Yast to sources that have these packages. There are a few threads on adding ftp sources so run a quicl search on the board and you should find it.

BTW, if you're looking for smb4k for SuSE 9.1, go grab it here: ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-gu.../Network/smb4k/

Thnx A lot for your answers

i'm gonna look the board to find FTP mirrors with thoses packages.

Lulux