#include stddisclaimer.h>
This tip contributed by Calum. Thanks Calum!!
Pros: Have you ever heard the term RPM hell? Well
forget it. This "apt" package brings Debian's excellent package management
system to Mandrake. And as a bonus there is a cool graphical front end.
Package management has never been easier. Keeping your system updated has never
been easier. Installing the coolest Linux apps has never been easier. apt for
RPM is more flexible and reliable than the Mandrake System Update or the Red
Hat Network System Update.
Makes installing packages easier because it will automatically select dependent
packages for installation and let you view selected packages before installing
them.
Makes removing packages easier because it will automatically select dependent
packages for removal and let you view selected packages before removing them.
Does not interfere or hinder in any way the normal use of the "rpm"
command, database, or the Mandrake System Update. Too many more pros to
list here.
Cons: Not all 3rd party RPMS are in the available
apt repositories. Fortunately most of the best ones are there.
Ok, I'm convinced, now how do I set this up?
Let us begin:
Get and install the latest "apt" RPM packages for Mandrake
from this site.
I'll just run through the installation process on my Mandrake 9.0 system:
$ su
(enter root's password)
# rpm -Uvh http://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/contrib/texstar/apt/Mandrake/RPMS.texstar/apt-0.5.4cnc8-2tex.i586.rpm
# rpm -Uvh http://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/contrib/texstar/apt/Mandrake/RPMS.texstar/apt-devel-0.5.4cnc8-2tex.i586.rpm
# rpm -Uvh http://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/contrib/texstar/apt/Mandrake/RPMS.texstar/fontconfig-2.1-3tex.i586.rpm
# rpm -Uvh http://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/contrib/texstar/apt/Mandrake/RPMS.texstar/synaptic-0.31-1tex.i586.rpm
# apt-get update
# synaptic
That last command will start the Synaptic apt-get graphical interface. You will
not find Synaptic in the start menu or on the desktop however. You won't even
usually be able to run it from the command line. It is installed in /usr/sbin/
so it is only in your path if you are root. This means you must 'su' to root
every time you want to run 'synaptic'.
The first thing I installed was "msfonts",
these are just a bunch of truetype fonts that you usually get with ms-windows.
It's useful to have them installed in case you view any badly written web pages
that expect you to have these fonts. You can do this by clicking on
"msfonts"
in the package list, then click the "install" button on the lower right
part of the Synaptic window. If you have this package already installed, this
button will say 'Upgrade' and if you have the most recent version of the
package,
the button will be inactive. You should notice that the "Proceed" button
at the top is now active. If you click on the "Proceed" button Synaptic
will download and install msfonts. Click the images below for a screenshot of
the Synaptic interface:
Of course anything you can do in the graphical Synaptic interface you can also
do
on the command line. You can use apt-get very much like you use apt-get in
Debian GNU/Linux:
# apt-get install msfonts
This would have done the same thing that we did in the Synaptic interface in the
previous example. Also, you'll periodically want to run the "apt-get
update" command or click the "Update List" button in Synaptic to get
the
latest lists of available packages. You can do an "apt-get upgrade" to
upgrade any installed packages where newer versions of the packages exist
(keeping your system up to date). There are a few other key commands you'll find
in the manual page ('man apt').
If you can not get out to the internet without going through a proxy server you
will need to configure apt to use your proxy server. Edit the
/etc/apt/apt.conf file and add this section to your configuration:
ACQUIRE
{
http
{
Proxy "http://proxy.somewhere.com:3128/";
};
};
|
Change the "http://proxy.somewhere.com:3128/" above to the URL of your
proxy server. If your proxy server requires authentication you can add your
username/password to the URL like this:
http://username:password@proxy.somewhere.com:3128/
The port (3128 in this example) may not be required for your proxy server. If
you do need a username/password you may want to make sure non-root users on your
system can not read this file:
# chmod go= /etc/apt
Further Reading:
$ man apt-get
Have fun!
Comments
|
|
