Resolving RPM dependency

[Alex_133]

hi all,

I've previously installed Redhat 9 with without XFree86 & Gnome due to disk space.
Now, I've got much bigger disk on hand, and want to install XFree86 and Gnome,
however, I find that the RPM dependency for XFree86 and Gnome is very deep, for example
XFree86 depends on A, B and C
A depends D, E
D depends F
E depends G
B depends H, I, J
H depends K, L
.........
...........
.......... This is just like an never ending story!

I've spent my whole day trying to resolve these rpm dependecies, is there way
to list down all the RPMS needed by XFree86 and Gnome??? or an option passwd
to rpm, to make install all needed rpms to resolve the dependecy?

[Balaji N · Accepted solution]

hi,

is there some thing called "redhat-config-packages" available. this will help you.

why dont you try an upgrade by popping in the CD if you can afford shutting the machine and if it is a lot of rpms to be installed.


-balaji

[Sergejs Svitnevs]

Try to install XFree86 and Gnome from Install CD. Use "Upgrade existing system" option in "installation type" menu and choose XFree86 and Gnome as what you want upgraded.

Regards,
Sergejs

[Umapathy S]

I faced this problem so many times.
Normally what I do is first try to install the XFree86* RPMS in the order as mentioned and KDE/GNOME base RPMS.
Sometimes I use rpmfind.net to gather the list of dependencies also. It lists a 'provides/requries' column that contain the *.so. You can set them as a baseline and lookout for the RPMS there on.
RPM is improving but its a long way to go :).

HTH
Umapathy

[Ted M Johnson_1]

Welcome to rpmhell :-)

I realize this isn't a real solution for your problem, rather it's my personal experience.

After dealing with exactly your issue on most every rpm-based disto, I finally gave up and switched to Gentoo.

If you don't mind spending a day (or two) doing a full compile of gcc, xfree86, kde, gnome, and a kernel on your system, I would recommend Gentoo. My system is faster, and there are no more rpm circular dependencies, no more up2date, no more non-standard applications.

This is just my .02

[Bill Douglass]

Another options is to install apt-rpm

http://apt4rpm.sourceforge.net/

It allows you to install packages and resolves dependencies for you.

[Balaji N]

Ted,

Gentoo is good if you want a bleeding edge distro. But just imagine the hassles downloading the source and compiling.

I have a friend who used to do this regularly but the effort i guess is way too much.

-balaji

[Alex_133]

ah..it's indeed a rpm hell, I actually prefer installing the software from source. Thank you all for the input, I may wanna try app-get.

[Blaz Novak]

For basic XFree86 and Gnome on Red Hat 7.3 see attachment.
After the rpm instalations you should first set the fonts directory (see error log only after you run startx) and then you should run xf86config to set the keyboard, mouse, screen settings etc.
For other versions of Red Hat Linux the list my slightly differ.

[Ralph Grothe]

Wonder why no one has mentioned yum yet.

I consider yum to be the only feasible dependency resolution tool on a RH based Linux distro if you don't want to lose sanity.

Since Fedora (or any other RH distro) generally lacks all those heavily dependable codec and multimedia packages which are under other licenses than the GPL (e.g. mp3 players) I use to obtain those RPMs from third party sites like atrpms.
For this to work you would only have to add a few entries in either /etc/yum.conf or /etc/yum.d in separate files.
Then you simply would issue

# yum instal blah-blah

and yum deligently would resolve all dependencies and install everything needed.

Have a look at man yum.

[Alex_133]

I posted this way back in 2003, and am quite surprised to be still receiving solution today. Linux software package management (rpm) has certainly improved a lot in these years, and I rely heavily on YUM nowadays. Thanks to all the people who have answered this post, i am closing this thread now. thanks again.