Re: Dummy

["Teilhard Knight" <teilhk@yifan.net>]

> 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.


Yep, I compiled all right. I feel like a new man now (he). The install file
was very good. I just did what it said and everything worked just neat. I
was familiar with compression in Unix before, so, that part posed no
problems.

Teilhard Knight
The Extraterrestrial

Who ate my sandwich?