<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8">
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.10.2">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
On Thu, 2006-08-17 at 22:53 +1200, Cliff Pratt wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
<PRE>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Brent Wood wrote:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> OK, the issues with the pIII. Kubuntu was the distro that seemed to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> do everything the guy wanted, & supported all his hardware out of the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> box. USB Sony minidisk, etc... Once there he wanted emacs. I opened</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> the package mangler, I forget which it was, whatever Kubuntu uses, &</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> searched for emacs. It found nothing.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Tsk, tsk, tsk. You didn't wonder *why* it didn't find the package you </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">wanted?</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> ></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> I said I'd find the .deb files he needed, & I assumed that sticking</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> them on a CD & clicking on them from Konqueror would install them</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> easily.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">So, a few seconds after installing a distribution you decide to subvert </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the packaging system.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> ></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> So, I found the URL for the NZ Ubuntu repository. Opened it in a</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> browser looking for a directory full of .debs. Stuffed if I could</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> find any. I then searched for emacs, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, deb, debian,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> repository, etc. Still couldn't find anything. (This is unusual. I</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> generally find whatever I'm looking for in a few minutes).</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">You DON'T find Debian packages that way. But if you do, it took me just </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">a few minutes to find this....</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="http://nz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/">http://nz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">And I wasn't familiar with the structure before I looked. I just pulled </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the URL out of sources.list and browsed around a little.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> ></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> I told the guy I wasn't sure what to do, as I was unfamiliar with</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Debian based distros. I couldn't find an equivalent to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> <A HREF="http://www.rpmfind.net">www.rpmfind.net</A> in a couple of minutes, so I flicked my question to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> the list, where Andrej & Jonathan gave excellent & complete replies</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> that I'm pretty sure will work.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">There is no equivalent of rpmfind because it is not required!</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Honestly! You slap on a distro, don't bother to find out about the </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">packaging system ('package mangler'!!), you then try to find packages by </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">a non-standard method (even for rpm-based distros you rarely have to </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">'rpmfind' a package, and you rarely have to use the rpm command), then </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">you blame the distro because it doesn't work the way that you expect it to!</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">It's highly likely that the system is not correctly configured with </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">repositories correctly set, and the guy will find that he has a system </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">that he can't get updates for!</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Cheers,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Cliff</FONT>
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
Cliff : Woah chill out man - rpm, deb, whatever they all have their merits. i dont see why anyone should be persecuted for making a mistake - we all have our methods, as for downloading and installing a .deb by hand - it is perfectly standard and fine. all apt does is to automate the process. Get off your high horse and help rather than putting the guy down. as for "there is no equivalent of rpmfind" what do you call this ? <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages#search_packages">http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages#search_packages</A> and this <A HREF="http://packages.ubuntu.com/">http://packages.ubuntu.com/</A><BR>
<BR>
Brent : you may find this handy (i use it on all Ubuntu systems i install - it needs net access however) <A HREF="http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/overview.html,">http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/overview.html,</A> and your issue with the A64 Network is an odd one - i have a similar motherboard and my network works without an issue, does that board have 2 network ports ? if so you need to make sure your plugged into the one that is powered by the northbridge and not the other - as all AMD64 distro's support forcedeth (the module for nforce ethernet) however they may not support the second network without some buggering round<BR>
<BR>
<TABLE CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD>
<FONT SIZE="1"><FONT COLOR="#000080">Geraint Jones</FONT></FONT><BR>
<FONT SIZE="1"><FONT COLOR="#bebebe">Systems Administrator</FONT></FONT><BR>
<FONT SIZE="1"><FONT COLOR="#bebebe">French Maid Foods Limited</FONT></FONT><BR>
<BR>
<FONT SIZE="1"><FONT COLOR="#bebebe"><A HREF="http://www.french-maid.net/">www.french-maid.net</A></FONT></FONT><BR>
<BR>
<FONT SIZE="1"><FONT COLOR="#bebebe">DDI: +64 (0)4 570 7633</FONT></FONT><BR>
<FONT SIZE="1"><FONT COLOR="#bebebe">Tel: +64 (0)4 568 2687</FONT></FONT><BR>
<FONT SIZE="1"><FONT COLOR="#bebebe">Fax: +64 (0)4 568 2345</FONT></FONT><BR>
<FONT SIZE="1"><FONT COLOR="#bebebe">Mob: +64 (0)21 739 240</FONT></FONT><BR>
<BR>
--<BR>
<BR>
This is the first age that's paid much attention to the future, which is a<BR>
little ironic since we may not have one.<BR>
-- Arthur Clarke<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</BODY>
</HTML>