Re: [newbie] urpmi

[Technoslick]

After seeing it mentioned here not long ago, I tried urpmi for the first time. (I needed to update a part of KDE making it impossible to do so within the GUI) I was really surprised at how effective and efficient it was. However, I am still having problems getting dependencies and updates completed in some cases. Apparently, part of the problem is finding the right servers. Your reply to Rob was a godsend for me. Not only do I have some sites that work well, are relatively complete and 'Derek approved' (a little plug for the guy...), but I better understand what I am doing with urpmi! Thanks, Derek, for explaining to a newbie the 'how', and more importantly, the 'why'. For some reason, documentation on any platform fails to explain why you do something or why you would want to do it, just how to do it. That's when personal help really shines.

Thanks,

T


Derek Jennings wrote:
<snip>

I have also been playing with Debian recently, and so far my impression has been that it is very similar to urpmi. The debian servers seem to be faster responding, probably because they are dedicated servers rather than the public servers Mandrake uses. However in terms of managing packages and resolving dependencies they seem very similar.
I think where Mandrake falls down is in not predefining or publishing a set of update sources other than the security update source so most users never discover what a great tool it is for keeping your system up to date. Also some of the public mirrors are truly awful, leading users to assume urpmi is not working. I think Mandrake should delete some mirrors from the list and perhaps introduce some dedicated servers, at least for Mandrake Club

As for recommendations. Here are the sources I use. The rediris mirror is very fast, (but if I keep telling people it soon will not be :)

For Applications in the 9.0 Contrib snapshot
urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://ftp.rediris.es/pub/linux/distributions/mandrake/9.0/contrib/RPMS with ./synthesis.hdlist2.cz

For official Mandrake updates
urpmi.addmedia --update updates ftp://ftp.rediris.es/pub/linux/distributions/mandrake/updates/9.0/RPMS with ../base/hdlist.cz

For the PLF archive of patented and 'illegal' applications
urpmi.addmedia plf http://www.zoreil.com/mirrors/www.plf.org/9.0 with hdlist.cz

For Texstars famous RPMS (see forum on www.pclinuxonline for details)
urpmi.addmedia texstar ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/contrib/texstar/linux/distributions/mandrake/9.0/rpms with ./hdlist.cz

For commercial apps on Powerpack CDs (club membership required)
urpmi.addmedia mandrake_club http://my_username:my_password@;www.mandrakeclub.com/downloads2/comm/9.0/i586 with ./hdlist.cz

For RPMS made by Club members. (no membership required)
urpmi.addmedia club.contrib ftp://ftp.rediris.es/pub/linux/distributions/mandrake-devel/unsupported/MandrakeClub/9.0/i586/ with ./hdlist.cz
You should remember to 'update' those sources which are liable to change before searching for applications, or else it may not find the dependencies it thinks are there. The command
urpmi.update -a will update all non-removable media. Putting it into a daily cron job will keep you up to date.

HTH

derek



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