apt for Mandrake

Calum · Post by **Calum** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 8:23 am

yes, it exists. apt for mandrake.

as some know i was going to write a full tutorial about it in the same way as void has done for apt for red hat, but i am sorry to say that it isn't going to happen in the near future. not from me anyway. yes, apt and apt-devel are both available for mandrake, and yes you might be able to use non mandrake versions. and as far as i know the source code is all available (actually i might write the tutorial purely using source rpms, but don't hold your breath) but the mandrake rpms are such a shambles! version 0.3 here, version 0.5 there. i can't find any apt-devel later than 0.3, but i cannot upgrade apt to 0.5 (which it needs to be to get synaptic to work) since there is no 0.5 of apt-devel... Also no matter how hard i keep trying to stick to mandrake only rpms, i ocassionally fall over these 'dependencies' like having to have libglade, GTK+2 and libc6 installed (i have them all installed, but the rpms do not know that as they have obviously not been compiled on a mandrake system).

now, i'm just going to post the notes i was making before i gave up in case they are helpful to anybody else, and i might read up on how to properly deal with SRPMs and come back to this later using source only rpms. i was also going to use the neat trick of installing apt and apt-devel and then use 'apt-get install synaptic' but no dice, it seems the mandrake repositories are knacked (which does me no good even if i can get the thing to install) and they have no knowledge of that (or some other fairly normal) package(s).
here are the notes:

http://rpmseek.com/rpm-pl/apt.html?hl=c ... t:PR:0:0:0
is the url to get apt

http://rpmseek.com/rpm-dl/apt-devel-0.3 ... 0:0:365587
is the url to get apt-devel

or else:

rpm -Uvh ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/Mandrake-devel/ ... k.i586.rpm

rpm -Uvh ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/Mandrake/9.0/co ... k.i586.rpm

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 6:10 am

Found this when doing a search on apt-devel-0.5.4cnc9 + Mandrake
http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/idpl/30 ... 175/stat/4

Also performing a search for the devel package on rpm.pbone.net gives a pretty long list of apt-devel-0.5.4cnc9 packages, you'll probably find the right one there.
Hope this helps you out, it would be a nice thing to have apt-rpm available for Mandrake too.

There are a few repositories out there for Mandrake, Google on apt-rpm repository + Mandrake.

Edit :
Here you'll find two matching versions of apt and apt-devel plus the matching version for synaptic
http://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distri ... S.texstar/

Calum · Post by **Calum** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 6:32 am

i'm sure i found that yesterday...
still, thank you for doing the leg work for me, i too noticed versions all over the place but didn't think i had found a matching set that would install on mandrake.

i will try again today and see if i can write that article.

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 7:25 am

Found some stuff here too
http://apt4rpm.sourceforge.net/
There's a download section with the matching apt + devel packages and there's a section with repositories for both Red Hat and Mandrake.

I'll also try to dig up the Texstar repository for Mandrake again, I posted it on the MES forums but can't seem to find the exact post again

Calum · Post by **Calum** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 8:41 am

* edit: ignore this post - answer at botom:
well i think i've got a repository problem here.
perhaps you can help. also, can the sources.list file contain a big list of alternative repositories? or must it contain only one active reference for srpms and one for binary rpms?

anyway, take a look at this:

Code: Select all

[root@localhost apt]# apt-get upgrade ftp
Reading Package Lists... Done
Collecting File Provides... Error!
E: could not open RPM package list file /var/state/apt/lists/ftp.ibiblio.org_pub_Linux_distributions_contrib_texstar_apt_Mandrake_base_pkglist.updates: (no error)
E: Problem opening /var/state/apt/lists/ftp.ibiblio.org_pub_Linux_distributions_contrib_texstar_apt_Mandrake_base_pkglist.updates
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
[root@localhost apt]# ls -al /var/state/apt/lists/
total 2
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root           72 Jan 21 14:06 ./
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root           72 Jan 21 14:06 ../
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root           48 Oct 13 05:21 partial/

why is it looking in /var/state/apt/lists instead of on the net? this was a problem i was having with apt yesterday on mdk too. hasn't happened on RH though, the sources.list that came with the freshrpms stuff in it works fine (and i hae finally completed a 3 day dist-upgrade on dialup!) but i really don't know wqhere to begin to fix this odd repository searching error.
* - i forgot to do 'apt-get update'. victim of my own dumbness yet again!

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 9:31 am

On a side note, I just noticed there is a new synaptic interface after the last dist upgrade which so far I like better as it's easier to find packages. I have updated my apt page again with a screenshot of the new interface (may need to click refresh in your browser to get the new image). I have also put it back to showing that you can install both mplayer and mplayer-skins by clicking on mplayer-skins and installing. It is working again.

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 10:08 am

I installed the new interface last week but so far I liked the old one better.
I liked the fact that there were tabs with a general description and dependencies.

The odd thing is that I think I remember having those tabs in the new version too but on the lower side of my screen, anyway they're gone now and I didn't find any option to turn them back on.

Calum · Post by **Calum** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 11:46 am

hmm, well i just did a dist-upgrade and mine is still version 0.24.1 which is what i had when i started, but i did notice a different interface when i installed today on mandrake.
ah yes, that reminds me:

I finished the mandrake page and have sent it to void main's linuxmail.org address for perusal. i only changed the first half of the page, basically everything's the same once we've got it installed.

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 1:50 pm

Ice9 wrote:I installed the new interface last week but so far I liked the old one better.
I liked the fact that there were tabs with a general description and dependencies.

The odd thing is that I think I remember having those tabs in the new version too but on the lower side of my screen, anyway they're gone now and I didn't find any option to turn them back on.

That is odd, as you can see the tabs are on the bottom on my new version (.31):

http://voidmain.kicks-ass.net/si/?i=syn ... t=Synaptic

Don't know why they wouldn't be there on yours (unless you are not running .31). Also, I do like the new interface because you can type the first few letters of the package in the "find package" box and it will take you right to it (if it's in the repository that is). Something I thought should have been in the previous version.

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 2:31 pm

I'm feeling kinda stupid now.
I just thought I'd try something, and sure enough when I moved my mouse near the lower edge of the screen I saw a double arrow telling me that there was something to enlarge.
Now I've got the tabs back, but I can't remember doing anyting to minimize them?!

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 3:24 pm

Calum wrote:I finished the mandrake page and have sent it to void main's linuxmail.org address for perusal. i only changed the first half of the page, basically everything's the same once we've got it installed.

Excellent! I've started a Mandrake Tips section thanks to you. Your tip is the first one (and only one to this point). :)

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 5:46 pm

I don't mean to nitpick here but in the part where you mention kino (in the Mandrake tip) you cite Red Hat repositories

rpm http://kino.schirmacher.de/ redhat/8.0/en/i386 kinorpms
rpm-src http://kino.schirmacher.de/ redhat/8.0/en/i386 kinorpms

It might be better to remove those entries unless you want them as an example for adding repositories to the sources.list file.

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 7:09 pm

By all means, nitpick away! I don't care how small, let me know if you see something that could be better. I removed the part about kino because it does not appear that there is a repository for it for Mandrake. I also removed the link to freshrpms.net because from what I can tell that is Red Hat specific. Where are the best repositories for Mandrake? I'll add a link to the page...

Thanks!

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 1:28 am

http://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distri ... /Mandrake/
is the most complete from what I can tell but there might be others, I'll research it a little more and let you know if I come up with someting.

Calum · Post by **Calum** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 5:59 am

hey guys! thanks for fixing those errors! i just basically tried to edit the red hat one into a mandrake one, i must have missed some things that should have been changed. glad you spotted it and fixed it.