Linux® Quick Fix

This could be because of new business requirements for additional packages or the need to install new administrative tools to make your job easier. Fedora Linux software is primarily available in Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) files. Regular RPM pack...

There are three commonly used sources for RPMs: Fedora distribution CDs; RPMs manually downloaded via a browser, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client, or the wget utility; and automated downloads using yum. Each of these methods is introduced here, bu...

There are numerous Web sites from which you can download Fedora RPM software; two of the most popular are the Fedora Web site and rpmfind.net. The methods used to get the software from either site are simple, but different enough to be treated separa...

The Web-based method in the last section transparently uses anonymous FTP. Anonymous FTP enables you to log in and download files from a FTP server using the username anonymous or the shorter username ftp and a password that matches your e-mail addre...

The wget command can be used to download files quickly when you already know the URL at which the RPM is located. This is especially convenient if you are logged into your Linux box from another machine running a Web browser. You can browse the downl...

This provides the added advantage of choosing the most reliable sites in your part of the globe.yum makes multiple attempts to download RPMs before failing.yum automatically figures out not only the RPM packages that need updating, but also all the s...

There are generally two ways to install RPM files manually. The first method is by using a file previously downloaded to your hard drive, and the other is to install the RPM from some sort of removable media, such as a CD-ROM drive. Using Download...

Sometimes the packages you want to install need to be compiled in order to match your kernel version. This requires you to use source RPM files: Download the source RPMs or locate them on your CD collection. They usually have a file extension ending...

Sometimes the installation of RPM software doesn't go according to plan and you need to take corrective actions. This section shows you how to recover from some of the most common errors you'll encounter. Failed Dependencies Sometimes RPM install...

The rpm -qa command lists all the packages installed on your system: [root@bigboy tmp]# rpm -qa perl-Storable-1.0.14-15 smpeg-gtv-0.4.4-9 e2fsprogs-1.27-9 libstdc++-3.2-7 audiofile-0.2.3-3 ...

Sometimes you'll find yourself installing software that terminates with an error requesting the presence of a particular file. In many cases the installation program doesn't state the RPM package in which the file can be found. It is therefore import...

The rpm -e command erases an installed package. The package name given must match that listed in the rpm -qa command because the version of the package is important: [root@bigboy tmp]# rpm -e package-name...

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Another popular software installation file format is the tar file, which can frequently be obtained from the Web sites of software developers, and online software libraries such as www.sourceforge.net. The Linux tar command is used to archive files,...

This is covered in Chapter 7. Subsequent chapters cover the use, configuration, testing, and troubleshooting of many of the most popular Linux server applications used today....