On Thu 26 Apr 2007 18:34:38 NZST +1200, Chris AKA personthingy wrote: Frustration arising from not knowing the first thing about $DISTRO often results in foolish statements about $DISTRO with little to no base in technical fact. Been there, done that (other way round to you).
> So how does one install whois using suse 10.2? First good question, happy to help out ;) First off, expecting apt-get on SUSE with default-install is like expecting rpm/yum/etc on Debian with default install. It leads to disappointment (for good reason). Grumbling about whether $YOURFAVOURITEPACKAGE isn't part of a distro's default install selection fills up mailing lists everywhere, usually with not a lot to show for the effort. Better to just install the software one wants. The disk space costs dirt these days. If you want to install package X, say whois, these will all give you instant gratification: 1) Run yast, that being the main system administration tool (yep you're gonna have to learn this little about every $DISTRO), go to software management, enter whois, tick the appropriate box, hit go. This will also install all needed dependencies and prompts you to insert disk N as needed. 2) For those with a bit more in-the-know, yast2 -i whois at the root prompt will effect same action as 1). 3) rpm -Uvh ..../whois*.rpm at the root prompt will be superbly fast, but not install any dependencies, nor automatically run SuSEconfig. You also have to locate the package file yourself (trivial on the DVD). 4) zypper with the appropriate options (which I don't know off the cuff, I find yast GUI less effort) is a commandline-only tool for a whole lot of package management. It's probably the closest to apt-get. It may not be totally finished yet (watch out for 10.3), but it also does repository management (I think) which apt-get doesn't do. 5) There is zenworks package management, which nobody short of major enterprise (where it fulfils much-sought-after functions no other tool offers, certainly not apt-get) really likes. There's a command line tool and a GUI I think. Don't bother with it as it will be SLES-only from 10.3. On 10.2 it is installed as default though, suggest you use yast2 once to install the zypper/yast stuff. (Uninstalling the zen stuff can be a bit of a stuffup, install package management-related updates first!!) Disable the zmd service (yast service editor, or chkconfig). Note SUSE's service handling is LSB compliant, Debian's is not (perhaps the recent release fixes that), so correct is to swear at Debian if it doesn't work to your expectations, not at those who know how to follow standards. 6) Use yum, smart, apt-get (which will operate on rpms, nor debs), or whatever else takes your fancy. Tips: Always run SuSEconfig after installing packages if the package tool doesn't do it automatically. Repos have two flags, enable and refresh, so they can be disabled without deleting them; the refresh fetches the repo metadata and is needed for repos which change, unwanted for the DVD. Repo config data is in /var/lib/zypper/db/sources/ Now, no surprise for an "old" Debian user here, installing packages and having dependencies resolved obviously requires that one first configures appropriate repositories. You do that with yast (installation sources), or zen, or zypper. The distro manual should be quite informative here. If you installed from DVD or CDs, these are already configured, and installing whois is majorly trivial. If you installed over the net, that installation source is also alredy configured (obviously, or your install wouldn't have got off the ground), and installing whois is equally trivial. If you have a disk install, you can add an online repo at any time, in fact the distro installer asks you whether you would like to towards the end. And all package methods except 3) resolve dependencies from all available repos. This is relatively new to SUSE, but works reasonably well in 10.2, expect more tuning in 10.3. With 6) you need to configure repos as dictated by the tool of your choice. These days you can easily install all the multimedia stuff the copyright mafia doesn't want you to know about, I've been told. All a question of putting the right repo in (use google). There are all the packages in the buildservice too, though you'd want to know what you're doing there. As always, care is wise when adding non-vendor repos. So, SUSE has been able to do an apt-get install whois for well over a decade, except that it's called yast -i whois. Not all distros use debs, or apt-get, fact of life, get used to it, leave it, stick with what you know best, whatever, nobody cares what car you run, distro you drive, or woman you!%$*&[EMAIL PROTECTED]&$% NO CARRIER Volker :)) -- Volker Kuhlmann is list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
