When launching this tool you will have to
wait a few seconds, while Rpmdrake searches the available
packages database. Then you will be presented the Software
Packages Installation interface.
The window is divided into four parts: the upper part offers you some possibilities to manipulate the list of packages you can install. You will find this list in the middle on the left. Next to it, on the right, you have an area where you can find a description of the currently selected package. In the bottom of the window you will find two buttons and information about how much space will be needed to install the selected packages and how much space you have available on your disk.
Let us have
a closer look at the interface as shown in Figure 13.2, “The Software Packages
Installation interface”. A package named
“frozen-bubble-1.0.0-7mdk
” is
selected in the tree-view and in the package description area
you will see the required disk space, a short summary (Frozen
Bubble arcade game) and a detailed description (Full-featured,
colorful animated penguin eye candy...).
The status bar shows you the disk space required by the selected packages as well as the current free space. Please note that due to dependencies, the disk space required by the selected packages might be higher than the size required by the chosen package by itself.
Now you can begin the installation, by simply clicking on the button. A new window will appear, showing you a progress bar of how your installation is proceeding. If you prefer to leave without doing anything, you can just click on the button.
While selecting applications to install, it may happen that you choose a package which requires dependencies (additional libraries or another tool) to work correctly. In this case Rpmdrake displays an information window allowing you to choose whether to accept the selected dependencies, or to Cancel the operation (Figure 13.3, “Rpmdrake — dependency alert box”).
Another possible scenario might be: you want to install a package which requires dependencies, and various packages are capable of providing that dependency. The list of alternatives is then presented (Figure 13.4, “Rpmdrake — package alternatives”). You may read the additional information presented by clicking the button to help you choose the best alternative.
We will now take a closer look at the search and sort functions provided to ease your job as a system administrator.
Sometimes you may know about some tool you saw somewhere or you heard of at a friends place, now you wonder how to find and install them on your system.
It is really easy: just type the name, (or part of the name), in the text area next to the button. Then choose, from the pull-down list, where you want to look for it (either in the package name, in the description provided with the package or in the names of the files stored in the packages). After clicking on the button, a new list will appear (Search results), showing you the results Rpmdrake found while scanning the packages databases.
Let us take a look on the different sort orders:
This sort order will show the list of packages in the four groups you saw during the installation of Mandrakelinux. This is the easier sort order because it focuses on a selected part of the available packages, those which are considered to be the most useful of the distribution.
Instead of a tree view, you will be presented with a flat list of all available packages you can install on your system.
Here you will be shown the list of packages grouped by their functions (e.g. Games, System, Video, etc.).
Here you get a list sorted by size (the biggest package at the top, the smallest at the bottom of the list).
If you choose this presentation, you will end up with a flat list, in which all selected packages are shown first, the other available packages below them. To make it easier for you, those two parts are sorted alphabetically. This sort order is particularly useful just before the actual package installation, because it helps you to see the selection of packages to be installed.
Once again you will find the packages sorted alphabetically, but this time they are shown under the name of the data medium they belong to.
In this mode, you might get two groups of packages: a list of packages which might be added to your machine, and a second list of the packages of which you have an older version already installed on your computer.
When installing your system, you have been using a certain number of media (most probably CDs), containing the packages. You may also have added remote media (Figure 13.7, “Rpmdrake — adding a Media”) for which packages available may evolve in time (it is especially the case for your Club media).
Rpmdrake does not update all media each time it is run because that would take too much time, most of all with remote media. Media update can also be performed through Section 4, “The Software Media Manager”.