Re: Dummy

[Leo Spalteholz <leo@spalteholz.ca>]

On March 2, 2003 12:40 pm, Teilhard Knight wrote:
> > On March 2, 2003 08:03 am, Teilhard Knight wrote:
> > > > Kent West wrote:
> > > > > Teilhard Knight wrote:
> > > > >>> Kent West wrote:
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> But
> > > > >>> natively, Debian doesn't use the .rpm format
> > > > >>> (although it can in many cases with the "alien" package).
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Thanks a lot, Kent. A friend of mine told me Debian takes
> > > > >> Red Hat
> > >
> > > drivers
> > >
> > > > >> and to install it as simply as: rpm -ivh package_name.
> > > > >> This must be news for
> > > > >> you, so maybe I, through my friend, am contributing
> > > > >> something.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> :o)
> > > > >
> > > > > Wow! You're right; I didn't know about the rpm command
> > > > > being on Debian. But sure enough, it's on my box, and the
> > > > > man page says indicates that it'll install rpms.
> > > >
> > > > The man page is lying.  rpm is there to be used by alien and
> > > > to build rpms, it can't install packages because the rpm
> > > > package database doesn't exist.  If you try to create an rpm
> > > > package database in order to get it to work, don't expect
> > > > your system to stay unbroken for long.
> > >
> > > I guess you are right. I tried today to install as a root using
> > > rpm, and I got the reply you say: "database doesn't exist". Is
> > > alien in the distribution of Debian or should I grab it apart?
> > > I think I'll have a look.
> >
> > I've never had much luck installing anything with alien.  Unless
> > it's something trivial, it will usually be broken in some way
> > after install..
>
> Any suggestions, then? I have been able to get the drivers in a
> .tar.gz compressed file they say generically is for Linux, not what
> distribution. Guess I'll have to find what to do with them. Thanks.
>
> Teilhard Knight
> The Extraterrestrial
>
> Who ate my sandwich?

You will most likely have to compile it then.  There should be a file 
called README or INSTALL in that package somewhere.  tar.gz is a 
compressed archive archive file similar to .zip so you will need to 
uncompress it first.

Leo