I am looking for information or a tutorial on software installation. I have used and become comfortable with the YaST package manager, but there are some cases I am not sure how to handle. For example:
Suppose the software I am interested in is available in a newer revision than is available in the repositories I am familiar with and the old version is already installed on my system. If I do compile from source and install the new revision, will the package manager know about it or will it be out of sync and think I still have the old revision?
I have full confidence that the people in these forums can help me with any particular problem I may have, but I would like to get to the point that I understand software installation issues better and don’t need the help.
Newer versions may be available in a different repo. But we caution folks about just adding repo after repo.
The software search may help you: Software.openSUSE.org
If you build from source, no it will not be seen by package management. If install by .rpm manually it will be seen.
Are there steps that I should take if I do install from a compile to update the package manager or remove those entries from it so the information is not wrong? Where do I find out more about the package manager?
As noted, if the software version you wish to use is not available on the official OSS nor non-OSS, nor Update repositories, nor on the Packman repository, then you can search to see if someone else has packaged it for openSUSE.
RPM Search Engines
The two good search engines noted are:
INSTALL SOFTWARE
Now if you find the version you wish there, you can install via the single click install (which I dislike because of a lack of control/insight over what it does) or you can add the repository listed that has the version of the app you want, install the app, and then remove the repository. This is easy with zypper via:
zypper ar <some-repos> <aribrary-repos-name-you-create> #add repository
zypper install <application-you-want> #install the application
zypper rr <aribrary-repos-name-you-create> #remove the repository
REBUILD OLD RPM
Also, sometimes upon a new release, one finds an old application that was available for a previous openSUSE release is not available for the current release. Say it was available for openSUSE-11.0 but not 11.1 nor 11.2. But you wish to use it for 11.2. Then if you can find the rpm " .src " file, you can easily rebuild the rpm in SOME (not all) cases.
Then download that source file to your /home/username directory, and try to rebuild it as a REGULAR user with:
rpmbuild --rebuild camorama-0.19-0.pm.2.src.rpm
and sometimes that will create the rpm for 11.2. It may ask that you install some dependencies, so this could be an iterative process before you succeed. Then if you succeed in rebuilding the rpm for 11.2, you can simply install it with zypper.
ASK A PACKMAN PACKAGER
But lets say the application is NOT there at all, no rpm, nor rpm source file, and you desparately need it. Well what many of us do is go to the Packman mailing list and ask that one of the packman packagers package the application for us. Packman Info Page
COMPILE YOURSELF
But lets say no one will package this for you.
You could then compile it yourself, which dependant on the application may be difficult or easy. However if you do compile it yourself, it will NOT be tracked by the rpm database, unless you install it via an rpm. Some of us use “checkinstall” application to create cheap and dirty rpms (not for sharing but good for one’s own use). Checkinstall can be used by doing:
./configure
make
su
checkinstall
and install the created rpm, or if that does not work:
./configure
make
su
make install
checkinstall
and install the created rpm on top of the already installed applications.
KEEP REPOSITORIES LEAN AND MEAN
My recommendation is users stick with 4 and only 4 repositories. Those 4 are OSS, Non-OSS, Update and Packman. There is guidance here for setting up those 4 on openSUSE-11.2: Repositories/11.2 - openSUSE-Community The chances are OSS, Non-OSS, and Update are already setup, and you just need to add packman. Again ONLY those 4. If you add others you could have dependency problems. I recommend you add others ONLY as needed and IMMEDIATELY disable or remove them after you install what you need.
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