It seems precompiled binaries come mostly within the Redhat/Fedora2 flavor, and when you're lucky, Debian or Sparc.

Which of these binaries would mandrake be compatible with? Since both Redhat and Debian are linux-based operating systems, Is the bytecode different somehow, to warrant different binaries?

What libraries should I install now, and how do I know if I have them installed? What Gtk, glut, and other libraries do I need to make sure I have installed and updated? Are these file dependencies that linux gurus talk about? How many months should I go before I worry about learning how to patch my kernel? Why aren't there graphical utilities to handle all this already?!

Where's all tha 3d games hiding?! I love chromium, gimme more!

I can't seem to get my package manager to work properly, it never downloads the packages right or gives me 1500 different reasons why I can't check a box or I can't download or the download had corrupted or something else wasn't checked first and that other thing isn't even on the list. Should I worry about fixing it? I can just get everything elsewhere, right? If I live in Seattle, what mandrake rpm sources would be best to choose?

A couple things, first have you updated mandrake since you installed? If not, you need to do that.

First, you need to make sure you have the matching kernel source installed and in the right directory. I noticed your signature says your still running 2.6.3-7mdk. Thats fine, but before we go through this, you might want to start by updating your kernel. Just download the new rpm and source from the link just a little below here and install it before going through everything. If you don't want to, just keep going.

Run the command rpm -qa | grep kernel so you can see what kernels you have installed and what kernel sources. If you want to update your kernel, or need to get a kernel source you can get it here...

http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distribut.../Mandrake/RPMS/

Its a long list, but its in there (so is everything else you need).

If you already have it, or you just installed it (use the usual rpm -Uvh command) make sure you kernel source directory is pointing in the right direction.

cd to /usr/src

do ls -al

see where linux is pointing....if it doesn't say this:

linux -> linux-2.6.3-7mdk/

then do:

rm linux

then

ln -s linux-2.6.3-7mdk linux

Ok, now its time to update all your installed packages. This will take a little time, but most it you don't need to be here for, this will take a really long time if your on dial-up, but it needs to be done.

Start with the command urpmi.removemedia -a

Than add these lines one at a time, they may wrap around on your screen, but each on is a line.


Than type in these two commands and you should be set.

urpmi.update -a
urpmi --auto-select

Ok, your Mandrake system should be up-to-date. Now for your questions...

None of the pre-compiled binaries that aren't for Mandrake 10.0 are compatible with Mandrake 10.0, not ever Mandrake 9.2 rpms will work, you have to make sure you only downloading Mandrake 10.0 rpms.

I will leave the dependency question alone because I am not really sure what your trying to ask. Your system is up-to-date and should be running slick, the only other time you need to be worried about installing dependencies is when a new program needs one.

Its the summer season, the 3D games all go down to Brazil to hide from the tourists. I have no idea where they are, I am not a gammer, maybe somebody else knows.

Your package manager should work fine now that your updated, if the trouble persists, you can either go download the rpm right from that link at the top of this post, or come back.

Hope that helps you.

[root@localhost src]# urpmi.update -a
unable to take medium "main" into account as no list file [/var/lib/urpmi/list.main] exists
nothing to update (use urpmi.addmedia to add a media)
[root@localhost src]#

Hmm... I got that same message each time I typed in a new source, and even when I removed all the media sources. Therefore, I can't do anything that depends on it. I don't know where this list.main got off to.

I've been trying to install this GTK+ thing all morning. It started complaining that it couldn't install without it's dependencies being installed already, so I downloaded those and started making them all, and now I have a little problem with glib. The install readme says it has a configure file, but the directory doesn't think so! Regardless, make won't work if it's got no makefile. Perhaps I will just try to skip the installation of glib and assume I already have it, but it still irks me that I can't!

(And I only want to install GTK+ because of XMMS! Damn you XMMS! Why can't you include everything you need in one standalone executable binary?!!?!?!??!?!??!????!?!?!?!?!?!!!)

{edit} - I've downloaded the latest kernel source rpm. It told me I already had it. But when I did that command...

[root@localhost root]# rpm -qa | grep kernel

kernel-2.6.3.7mdk-1-1mdk

[root@localhost root]#

I don't see anything that indicates I have source *and* a kernel. I put the link in there like you said, and it points to the right place.

I do have braodband, but at the moment, it's acting as slow as dialup. Comcast == evil.

I am sorry, I miss read the list, your right, you are running the latest kernel.

So did all the media adds work? Because thats where the error seems to be comming from. If there are any errors when you add the things line by line. Or was that the first error?

How are you trying to install xmms? Are you using the Mandrake Package installer or are you just doing it yourself?

Okay, I found out how this works. It seems I've been aborting the addmedia's pre-emptively. But it's updating all my missing dependencies now. I'm going to look for the XMMS package, now. *browses /pub/linux/distributions*

I got XMMS and JWS working in Mandrake. I'm a linux GOD! Woo!

Okay, what do I do when I get something like this?

The following packages have bad signatures:
/var/cache/urpmi/rpms/gnome-vfs2-2.4.2-5mdk.i586.rpm:
/var/cache/urpmi/rpms/libgnome-vfs2_0-2.4.2-5mdk.i586
Do you want to continue installation ? (y/N)

Never seen that before. My gut would say you need to slow down and take a look at something. The file might have gotten currupted, or the download didn't go right. I don't know. But its doesn't sound like a good thing.

Doesn't it feel good to get things running? I can definitely tell you that some of the kids thought I was totally crazy because I would get pretty excited when I got something working.

Here's what happened. I was updating the file dependencies, right, and Comcast, my internet service provider, started acting up, causing some of the files to corrupt themselves. After re-running it and re-running it, the corrupted ones downloaded properly, and as of the moment, I'm 4 files away from a fully updated system, but the mirror you gave me is down so I'm going to find another Mandrake 10 mirror and everything should go smooth!

Okay! I had to do the last four by hand, but I installed all the dependencies! Woo!

Now, I need to put stuff like SDL and crap on there. Hmm... *installs dependencies needed for that crap I downloaded the other day*

Oh yeah, that's what happened last time. I can't install the SDL because I already HAVE the SDL somehow, but the compiler can't see it and spits up a ton of SDL errors!

To make matters worse....
I'd really really like it if I were able to tell people "Oh, yes, you can run a bash shell script from KDE if you want to, just doubleclick on it", but that doesn't work. You HAVE to open a bash terminal, and you HAVE to navigate to the directory, and THEN you have to type ./ command.sh

I thought we lived in the age of the graphical shell, where things were as easy as drag and drop, doubleclick. So, what's WRONG with you linux users?! Why are you all bent on SO MUCH d**n system security that you can't even RUN PROGRAMS from the CURRENT DIRECTORY?! Why does every friggin file have to have permissions just to be written to? Why can't you write to network drives that don't have passwords? Why is it SO TERRIBLE to run as root?! Why aren't all executable files executable by default when you download them, and HOW THE HECK do you run shell scripts, and executables that have to be run from the shell, FROM X11?!?!

You're a bunch of frightened little American Wussies, I swear to God. Survival of the fittest causes Evolution! Security equals stagnation! If Linux is about Freedom, where's all tha freedom at?!

Okay, I'll try to refrain from asking any more ontological questions. I mean, you guys are just USING the operating system. You're just victims, like all of those Microsoft Windows users out there. You don't define your world. You have no say in how any of it's going to be. You don't have to think about it at all. You just use it because it's there, it's what people have already done. You don't need to work on it, or redefine anything, that's okay. I'll try not to shatter your fragile little worlds anymore. *BRING IT ON!* Hehehe!

GCC Compiler:

checking for SDL - version >= 1.2.6... no
*** The sdl-config script installed by SDL could not be found
*** If SDL was installed in PREFIX, make sure PREFIX/bin is in
*** your path, or set the SDL_CONFIG environment variable to the
*** full path to sdl-config.
configure: error: *** couldn't find SDL 1.2.6

SDL version 1.2.7 (stable) Runtime Library installer for Linux:

You are about to install the following software package on your computer:
/root/Desktop/SDL-1.2.7-1.i386.rpm (182.8k)
To satisfy dependencies, the following packages are going to be installed (0 MB):
SDL-1.2.7-1.i386
Installation failed:
file /usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0.7.0 from install of SDL-1.2.7-1 conflicts with file from package libSDL1.2-1.2.7-2mdk

What be the problem here? I bet it's something really simple, like adding some weird bin/prefix to my path or setting some environment variable (which I'm clueless at anyways) but the messages do seem to conflict, so I'm hoping it's easy and already installed in some way.
-S

Actually,

Linux was not initally written in the United States ... see Linux History ... It was created in 1991 in Finland.

UNIX (and therefore Linux) don't do those things graphically because it's not windows...

If you want everything to be like Windows ... just use Windows

--------------------------------------------

It is the Linux Standard to put all executable files in either:

/bin, /usr/bin, /usr/local/bin

or

/sbin, /usr/sbin, /usr/local/sbin

If the standard is followed, and if those directories are in your PATH, you can run all executables at the command prompt without using ./ ... If you want to run non standard items, from non standard directories, a ./ is required.

The problem with using . in your path is that some idiot might put a program named cp in your current directory ... and make it executeable ... maybe it does something totally different than you are looking for ... and running that version of cpcould be dissasterous, when all you wanted to do was copy a couple files.

-----------------------------------

You need to install SDL-devel. devel packages are for developement, and they contain shared files that are not required to run a program, but are required to compile a new program to run using the first program. Most installs don't install devel packages, because most people don't need to compile progams.

Is there not an RPM available for the program you are trying to install?

If using an RPM based system, you should only compile your own programs if there is not RPM that does what you want. This is because other follow-on RPMs will require certain prerequisite RPMs to be installed ... and items that you install from source will not show up in the RPM database as installed.

----------------------------------

Instead of criticizing Linux for how it does things without having a basic knowledge of why it does it that way, why not learn the reasons for the GNU/Linux rules ... then almost all of them make perfect sense.

Linux Standard Base....Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

I use Linux because it is not designed like Windows ... not because it is not built by Microsoft. A open source clone built exacly like Microsoft Windows would have all the inherent flaws that windows has ... and what would be the point of that