I seem to remember that there was an rpm command that could be run to take an rpm not built for FC4 and rebuild it for FC4 installation - or something to that effect. I read through the man rpm but didn't see anything that clicked. I tried a couple of archive searches but nothing popped up. Am I missing the obvious? What I have is an rpm built for PCLinuxOS which is a derivative of Mandriva - I'm told that those rpm's can generally be used in FC4 as there is a distant relationship in the distros.
Claude Jones wrote:
I seem to remember that there was an rpm command that could be run to take an rpm not built for FC4 and rebuild it for FC4 installation - or something to that effect. I read through the man rpm but didn't see anything that clicked. I tried a couple of archive searches but nothing popped up. Am I missing the obvious? What I have is an rpm built for PCLinuxOS which is a derivative of Mandriva - I'm told that those rpm's can generally be used in FC4 as there is a distant relationship in the distros.
In some cases you can take the SRPM from the other distro and build it on Fedora. It won't always work, but I can't think of any other way of doing it.
Paul.
On Friday 10 February 2006 8:53 am, Paul Howarth wrote:
In some cases you can take the SRPM from the other distro and build it on Fedora. It won't always work, but I can't think of any other way of doing it.
Paul.
As usual, thanks, Paul. You gave me the clue, It was rpm --rebuild [source-rpm] which is what I'd remembered, but, I couldn't find that command in man rpm - maybe it's a utility...
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Claude Jones wrote:
On Friday 10 February 2006 8:53 am, Paul Howarth wrote:
In some cases you can take the SRPM from the other distro and build it on Fedora. It won't always work, but I can't think of any other way of doing it.
Paul.
As usual, thanks, Paul. You gave me the clue, It was rpm --rebuild [source-rpm] which is what I'd remembered, but, I couldn't find that command in man rpm - maybe it's a utility...
Try 'rpmbuild --rebuild [source-rpm]'.... It was split off some time ago, read man rpmbuild for more.
James Kosin
Claude Jones wrote:
I seem to remember that there was an rpm command that could be run to take an rpm not built for FC4 and rebuild it for FC4 installation - or something to that effect. I read through the man rpm but didn't see anything that clicked. I tried a couple of archive searches but nothing popped up. Am I missing the obvious? What I have is an rpm built for PCLinuxOS which is a derivative of Mandriva - I'm told that those rpm's can generally be used in FC4 as there is a distant relationship in the distros.
There is a command to build applications from source files "checkinstall" (Dries)
It will make an rpm file of the install on compiled programs.
On Fri, Feb 10, 2006 at 08:12:05AM -0500, Claude Jones wrote:
I seem to remember that there was an rpm command that could be run to take an rpm not built for FC4 and rebuild it for FC4 installation - or something to that effect. I read through the man rpm but didn't see anything that clicked. I tried a couple of archive searches but nothing popped up. Am I missing the obvious? What I have is an rpm built for PCLinuxOS which is a derivative of Mandriva - I'm told that those rpm's can generally be used in FC4 as there is a distant relationship in the distros.
When using rpmbuild --rebuild *.src.rpm with foreign SRPMs, you may want to be aware of the macro differences. See my post to rpm-list in a thread about macro differences between distros:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/rpm-list/2002-June/msg00111.html
In particular, the use of undefined macros (like Mandrake's %make) results in mysterious error messages such as:
+ %make /extra_disk/src/install/rpm-tmp.37547: line 30: fg: no job control error: Bad exit status from /extra_disk/src/install/rpm-tmp.37547 (%build)
Regards,
Bill Rugolsky
Bill Rugolsky Jr. wrote:
On Fri, Feb 10, 2006 at 08:12:05AM -0500, Claude Jones wrote:
I seem to remember that there was an rpm command that could be run to take an rpm not built for FC4 and rebuild it for FC4 installation - or something to that effect. I read through the man rpm but didn't see anything that clicked. I tried a couple of archive searches but nothing popped up. Am I missing the obvious? What I have is an rpm built for PCLinuxOS which is a derivative of Mandriva - I'm told that those rpm's can generally be used in FC4 as there is a distant relationship in the distros.
When using rpmbuild --rebuild *.src.rpm with foreign SRPMs, you may want to be aware of the macro differences. See my post to rpm-list in a thread about macro differences between distros:
and better than "rpmbuild --rebuild" is "rpm -i" after which you inspect the spec and config files for hazards. Then, "rpm -ba "
On Fri February 10 2006 5:58 pm, John Summerfied wrote:
Bill Rugolsky Jr. wrote:
On Fri, Feb 10, 2006 at 08:12:05AM -0500, Claude Jones wrote:
I seem to remember that there was an rpm command that could be run to take an rpm not built for FC4 and rebuild it for FC4 installation - or something to that effect. I read through the man rpm but didn't see anything that clicked. I tried a couple of archive searches but nothing popped up. Am I missing the obvious? What I have is an rpm built for PCLinuxOS which is a derivative of Mandriva - I'm told that those rpm's can generally be used in FC4 as there is a distant relationship in the distros.
When using rpmbuild --rebuild *.src.rpm with foreign SRPMs, you may want to be aware of the macro differences. See my post to rpm-list in a thread about macro differences between distros:
and better than "rpmbuild --rebuild" is "rpm -i" after which you inspect the spec and config files for hazards. Then, "rpm -ba "
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. I did try installing the rpm's as suggested by one post. I ran into dependencies problems. I got the dependent rpm's, but then I ran into lib problems. For those who are curious, the program is kdenlive, a video editor that looks promising from an interface standpoint. It's a frontend for piave. It's lib dependencies for piave that got me stuck. I decided to revisit this because my main occupation is in TV production, and I'm trying to track all the various projects. Kdenlive is the only one that's stumped me on FC4. It's not completely clear to me whether that project is alive - it does come pre-packaged with the PCLinuxOS distro, but I haven't had the time to actually play with it on that box.
Claude Jones wrote:
I seem to remember that there was an rpm command that could be run to take an rpm not built for FC4 and rebuild it for FC4 installation - or something to that effect. I read through the man rpm but didn't see anything that clicked. I tried a couple of archive searches but nothing popped up. Am I missing the obvious? What I have is an rpm built for PCLinuxOS which is a derivative of Mandriva - I'm told that those rpm's can generally be used in FC4 as there is a distant relationship in the distros.
You know, depending on the application, just installing the RPM has a good chance of working. Linux tends to have good binary compatibility for userland apps. And most RPM dependencies tend to be on files or libraries, not RPM names.
Applications which are more stand alone and less tied into a toolkit have a better chance of working than ones that are heavily dependent on other RPMs. Bizaarely, this means that older programs have a better chance of working.
(Of course, you may have to hunt down required libraries and the like yourself. But that's not necessarily impossible. The Red Hat series of compat-*.rpm packages can help here).
I have several RPMs install that come from old distros. I've never noticed a problem with any of the programs.
James.
James Wilkinson wrote:
Claude Jones wrote:
snip
You know, depending on the application, just installing the RPM has a good chance of working. Linux tends to have good binary compatibility for userland apps. And most RPM dependencies tend to be on files or libraries, not RPM names.
Applications which are more stand alone and less tied into a toolkit have a better chance of working than ones that are heavily dependent on other RPMs. Bizaarely, this means that older programs have a better chance of working.
(Of course, you may have to hunt down required libraries and the like yourself. But that's not necessarily impossible. The Red Hat series of compat-*.rpm packages can help here).
I have several RPMs install that come from old distros. I've never noticed a problem with any of the programs.
James.
This is a good reason for the --test flag. You can just rpm -ivh --test {package} and see if it will work.
James Wilkinson wrote:
Claude Jones wrote:
I seem to remember that there was an rpm command that could be run to take an rpm not built for FC4 and rebuild it for FC4 installation - or something to that effect. I read through the man rpm but didn't see anything that clicked. I tried a couple of archive searches but nothing popped up. Am I missing the obvious? What I have is an rpm built for PCLinuxOS which is a derivative of Mandriva - I'm told that those rpm's can generally be used in FC4 as there is a distant relationship in the distros.
You know, depending on the application, just installing the RPM has a good chance of working. Linux tends to have good binary compatibility for userland apps. And most RPM dependencies tend to be on files or libraries, not RPM names.
Binary compatibility and deps are only part of the story. The scripts I've already mentioned, there are also possibilities with filename conflicts, maybe interactions with other packages (the DHCP set of programs works very differently on SUSE) and more, I'm sure.
John Summerfied wrote:
Binary compatibility and deps are only part of the story. The scripts I've already mentioned, there are also possibilities with filename conflicts, maybe interactions with other packages (the DHCP set of programs works very differently on SUSE) and more, I'm sure.
Scripts are a good point, but if RPM doesn't catch filename conflicts, that's a bug that should be reported.
James.
James Wilkinson wrote:
John Summerfied wrote:
Binary compatibility and deps are only part of the story. The scripts I've already mentioned, there are also possibilities with filename conflicts, maybe interactions with other packages (the DHCP set of programs works very differently on SUSE) and more, I'm sure.
Scripts are a good point, but if RPM doesn't catch filename conflicts, that's a bug that should be reported.
The problem it _might_ cause is one package or the other won't install. Not a bug if they're from different distros.
Claude Jones wrote:
I seem to remember that there was an rpm command that could be run to take an rpm not built for FC4 and rebuild it for FC4 installation - or something to that effect. I read through the man rpm but didn't see anything that clicked. I tried a couple of archive searches but nothing popped up. Am I missing the obvious? What I have is an rpm built for PCLinuxOS which is a derivative of Mandriva - I'm told that those rpm's can generally be used in FC4 as there is a distant relationship in the distros.
In general, using rpms from one distro for another is problematic. They may have pre and post install scripts that do bad things in the wrong distro. They may have /etc/inid.d scripts that won't work in the wrong environment, and more.
Safest, get the src.rpm, inspect it, build it. Even better, check the Brand-X repos.
-
Bill Rugolsky Jr. -
Claude Jones -
James Kosin -
James Wilkinson -
John Summerfield -
Paul Howarth -
Robin Laing