Some Linux questions

[calidude]

I am not familiar with those, no. I don't even know how to access those functions. :( I need to install:

GFtp

php 4.3.8 (needed so I can install the mySQL DB driver)

MPlayer 1.0

NVU 0.41

WhatPulse for Linux 1.0

XMMS 1.2.10

[kjordan2001]

  HBGuy said:

I got the command line stuff to work and the tarball files are now uncompressed. :yes: But now I want to figure out how to install the darn things. :(

(This is so annoying. I almost want to go back to Windows...)

If you're doing it from source:

./configure --prefix=/usr

make

make install

Check ./configure --help for more flags you can use.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Try opening up a shell and then su to root. (type su and hit ENTER, then enter your root password).

Then try doing the following:

yum install gftp

If that works, you should be able to get mplayer[//b] and xmms[//b] this way, too. Not sure, but maybe php, too.

nvu and whatpulse ( :x ) may require manual work, but this should save you a lot of time.

(by the way, most of those things should already be on your CDs/DVD with Fedora, and you should be able to go to your "Add/Remove Applications..." menu item to pick them, if you want to.)

[calidude]

  markjensen said:

Try opening up a shell and then su to root.  (type su and hit ENTER, then enter your root password).

Then try doing the following:

yum install gftp

If that works, you should be able to get mplayer[//b] and xmms[//b] this way, too.  Not sure, but maybe php, too.

nvu and whatpulse ( :x ) may require manual work, but this should save you a lot of time.

(by the way, most of those things should already be on your CDs/DVD with Fedora, and you should be able to go to your "Add/Remove Applications..." menu item to pick them, if you want to.)

I had already tried that to update those (and some other) packages via Add/Remove Applications; but it told me that PHP wasn't installed on my computer; so that's why I was trying to do it manually. :wacko:

[markwolfe Veteran]

  HBGuy said:

I had already tried that to update those (and some other) packages via Add/Remove Applications; but it told me that PHP wasn't installed on my computer; so that's why I was trying to do it manually. :wacko:

But did you try the yum thing?

[calidude]

Well hey, guess what.

The yum thing worked!!!111 :)

Got a bunch of em installed.

So far I have Gaim, php, mySQL, mozilla, and a few others installed. :) :D

[markwolfe Veteran]

  HBGuy said:

Well hey, guess what.

The yum thing worked!!!111 :)

Got a bunch of em installed.

So far I have Gaim, php, mySQL, mozilla, and a few others installed. :)  :D

That's why I suggested it, silly! :p

One thing you might want to do is to do a

yum install synaptic

which will install apt on your Fedora box, and the Syanptic GUI frontend to it.

You may prefer Syanpatic & apt over yum.

[EDIT: Oh, and another cool thing is to do a yum update. It will get updates for your kernel, your OS components, and any application you installed via RPM or YUM (which is just an RPM handler). So, things like GAIM, Firefox, celestia, and even tuxracer will be updated for you - all from that one command. A lot more convenient than Windows, in my opinion. ;) ]

[nexx]

Welcome to the world of automatic package management :)

yum is your best friend :yes:

http://fedorafaq.org/ has a great yum.conf that contains a list of servers with extra packages such as mplayer.

[calidude]

What does this error mean? :unsure: I get it when I go to Add / Remove packages but when I do the yum thing it says the packages are already there> :blink:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v156/CMGuy/php_error1.png

(linked cause it's a huge pic and I dunno how to shrink it)

[Mouton]

u tried "yum install php" ?

[calidude]

Yep, tried yum install php, yum install php ldap, and yum install php mbstring. It says all 3 already exist on my system. (

[markwolfe Veteran]

Ahhh..

Dependencies. They can be a pain when trying to set something up.

Can you do a rpm -qa | grep php at your command line?

You should get something like

php-imap-4.3.8-1.1
php-4.3.8-1.1
php-ldap-4.3.8-1.1
php-mbstring-4.3.8-1.1

as a response.

[gflores]

After reading this thread, I'm more frightened to install Linux now. :(

[kjordan2001]

  gflores said:

After reading this thread, I'm more frightened to install Linux now. :(

lol, Linux isn't frightening, there's just a lot to learn. What's there to be frightened of from an OS?

[calidude]

  markjensen said:

Ahhh..

Dependencies. They can be a pain when trying to set something up.

Can you do a rpm -qa | grep php at your command line?

You should get something like

php-imap-4.3.8-1.1
php-4.3.8-1.1
php-ldap-4.3.8-1.1
php-mbstring-4.3.8-1.1

as a response.

OK let's see here...

It says:

php-4.3.8-2.1

php-mbstring-4.3.8-2.1

php-pear-4.3.8-2.1

php-ldap-4.3.8-2.1

And that's all that is listed there. (It appears that I don't have php-imap.)

[markwolfe Veteran]

:wacko:

Somewhere along the line, your package manager got confused. It could have been from different attempts to install rpms directly and by yum. I'm not sure.

I know that you can use a --force to an rpm command to force an install, in the event it is hesitating when it shouldn't.

Or you can use yum remove xxxxx to remove a package and then try a re-install.

I honestly haven't had as many problems as you are running into.... :(

[calidude]

Well Mark (hope you don't ban me for me calling you that :p );

Part of the problem is this is my first real time using Linux as fully as I am now. I hardly know anything in comparison to everyone else in this forum when it comes to Linux and how it works; so that puts me at a huge disadvantage. However, I have worked with it just a tad; so that helps a little.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Well, "Mark" is my name. I have been called worse - usually by my wife. :whistle:

I am thinking - worst case - you can re-install. The better solution would be to remove the packages and re-add them.

I just don't know what to do at this point. I wasn't asked to moderate because of my Linux skills. There are MANY more people on here who know TONS more than I do. I think I was picked becuase I like to help, and I am on Neowin waaaay too often. :unsure:

For me, Linux has Just worked. That makes it good for me in that it does what I need to, but I haven't learned as much about Linux this way, so it is a trade-off.

If you live near an area with a LUG (Linux Users Group), I am sure that someone there will be willing to help you set up and teach you some initial basics. Google may show you something in your area, and the LUG website will give you email contacts and any scheduled meetings.

Other than that, try removing and reinstalling, and hopefully someone with more knowledge will be able to give you the help you need.

[calidude]

If I'm gonna bother to go that far; I might as well just put Windows back. I never imagined having this much trouble and headaches with Linux. :( Heck I can't even access my personal data, but that's a whole other story. :unsure:

[LaNcom]

HBGuy,

first of all, regarding your NTFS question: perfect read-write support for NTFS is possible, using either Captive (free, uses Windows driver) or Paragon NTFS (commercial):

http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/

http://www.ntfs-linux.com/

Then, about that YUM/ PHP thing: I don't know nothing about Redhat/FC - but I had some problems with RPM's back when I was using SuSE. It seems that PHP is installed, but the installer (Anaconda?) won't get it. First, make sure that PHP is really installed: open a terminal and enter 'php'. If this works, then it's the Package Manager's fault. IIRC, there's a way to rebuild the RPM database ('rpm --rebuilddb'), maybe that helps.

On the other hand, I _hate_ RPM based distros. It's a nice idea in general, but it's really risky to install packages from external sources and stuff. I would suggest to either use a distro that comes with everything you'll ever need (like SuSE professional) and install no packages from the internet 'till you're used to Linux, or use a distro like Debian or gentoo where everything get's installed from the internet... Those distros are harder to install, but easier to keep up to date!

[calidude]

  calidude said:

If I'm gonna bother to go that far; I might as well just put Windows back. I never imagined having this much trouble and headaches with Linux. :( Heck I can't even access my personal data, but that's a whole other story. :unsure:

I think I have jinxed myself. Seems my computer is just as bad off now; if not even worse. I am really stuck now.

On the subject of Linux, my SuSE Linux 9.1 installation CD won't go through the rest of the installation like it should. It just runs through the first part (where the progress bar and timer thing goes in the upper right corner) and when that goes away my computer reboots and the dam* GNU GRUB prompt comes right back.

[dotRoot]

  calidude said:

I think I have jinxed myself. Seems my computer is just as bad off now; if not even worse. I am really stuck now.

On the subject of Linux, my SuSE Linux 9.1 installation CD won't go through the rest of the installation like it should. It just runs through the first part (where the progress bar and timer thing goes in the upper right corner) and when that goes away my computer reboots and the dam* GNU GRUB prompt comes right back.

You should try mark's suggesting of removing and then reinstalling. You can also force it as was suggested and it'll be fine.

What it sounds like to me is that you installed them via yum, and now you are trying to update php or install the RPM, while the RPM database was never updated with those php packages that you have installed.

I think the command to rebuild the RPM DB is: rpm --rebuild

That may work without haveing to reinstall anything.

And remember, just because you have to learn a few things doesn't make it bad. Also its important to read through everyone's posts. People have already mention how to read your windows based partition in linux as if it was a linux partition. And I think someone mention how to get windows in your "main menu" to show up. You can even do a search for something like "howto grub windows" or something to that effect in google.

[calidude]

You all will be glad to know I have finally coaxed SuSE Linux into installing AND running on my hard drive (as opposed to off of a live CD). :D

[markwolfe Veteran]

Cool! :cool:

Glad you were successful!

[calidude]

OK me have my first SuSE Linux question...

The clock says it is 09:12 (I think that means A.M.); but it is really 4:12 PM here. How do I fix the system clock? :unsure: