/usr hierarchy repeated in RPM

[laidlaws]

I am trying to install an RPM converted from a .deb with Alien. At the top of the file list I see with "less," the RPM wants to create /usr, /usr/bin, etc again. This gives me the following error message in an Xterm:

Code: Select all

sudo rpm -Uvh mma-13.12-1.noarch.rpm
[sudo] password for doug:
Preparing...                          #################################
[100%]
file /usr from install of mma-13.12-1.noarch conflicts with file from package filesystem-2.1.9-21.mga4.i586
file /usr/bin from install of mma-13.12-1.noarch conflicts with file from package filesystem-2.1.9-21.mga4.i586
file /usr/share from install of mma-13.12-1.noarch conflicts with file from package filesystem-2.1.9-21.mga4.i586
file /usr/share/doc from install of mma-13.12-1.noarch conflicts with file from package filesystem-2.1.9-21.mga4.i586
file /usr/share/man from install of mma-13.12-1.noarch conflicts with file from package filesystem-2.1.9-21.mga4.i586
file /usr/bin from install of mma-13.12-1.noarch conflicts with file from package pcal-4.11.0-1mdv2010.2.i586
file /usr/share/man from install of mma-13.12-1.noarch conflicts with file from package pcal-4.11.0-1mdv2010.2.i586
file /usr/bin from install of mma-13.12-1.noarch conflicts with file from package
google-earth-stable-7.0.3.8542-0.i386



I thought that the obvious thing to do would be to leave out the creation of the filesystem but pcal is structured in the same way. pcal is an old Mandriva RPM. The developer knows nothing about RPMs, and I seem to be the only one with this problem (what's new?)

Is it perhaps due to Mageia advancing to RPM 4 ?

[doktor5000]

Is it perhaps due to Mageia advancing to RPM 4 ?

Mageia has always been using rpm.org (v4) and that won't change.

This looks like the packager also added the parent directories to the %files list of his package.
And the rule is, that only one package can own a directory/file, otherwise you see conflicts like you posted.

Can you please post a link to the .deb package you have used for the conversion please? Also the pcal
package seems broken too and google-earth also shouldn't own /usr/bin as that's owned by the filesystem package.

You can check that with rpm -qf /directory/or/path/to/file

[laidlaws]

Thanks. I didn't create the .deb; I only tried to install the rpm. I will pas on your reply.

Both files can be downloaded here:

http://mellowood.ca/mma/downloads.html

The output of rpm -qf indicates trouble:

Code: Select all

rpm -qf /usr/share/man
pcal-4.11.0-1mdv2010.2
filesystem-2.1.9-21.mga4


I can rebuild pcal.

[laidlaws]

[OT] I'm crazy, aren't I? If I can discuss rpm at this depth, I should be good enoug to join the QA team.

[doktor5000]

[OT] I'm crazy, aren't I? If I can discuss rpm at this depth, I should be good enoug to join the QA team.

Your soul has just been sold

[doktor5000]

Thanks. I didn't create the .deb; I only tried to install the rpm. I will pas on your reply.

Both files can be downloaded here:

http://mellowood.ca/mma/downloads.html

Ahh, I see, seems the author has created both the .deb and rpm himself. So the problem is not the conversion via alien (which usually works fine with all official Debian/*buntu packages, but may fail with 3rd party packages more or less gracefully when trying to install the generated rpm packages as you can see) but the .deb package itself. No offense to the author, I can comprehend that he simply wants to reach as much people with his software as possible.

As I'm not into Debian packaging at all, can't really take a look what the problem is. My recommendation would be to either use the tarball directly
or create an rpm package from the tarball, which sounds more complicated than it usually is.

I could give it a try and send the src.rpm to the author, so he can reuse it if he wants to.

[claire]

[OT] I'm crazy, aren't I? If I can discuss rpm at this depth, I should be good enoug to join the QA team.

Your soul has just been sold

You know what they say, you don't have to be crazy.. but it helps!

Allow me to welcome your soul to the QA team

We're not far from release now but there will be further ISOs to test when we've all recovered a bit and also a never ending supply of updates which are tested before being released, so we're never short of work to do. It's actually a great way to learn more about Mageia and linux in general. I guarantee you'll learn something new every single day. It's probably a bit intimidating at first but please try not to be. You only have to ask if there is anything you need help or guidance with, and are encouraged to do so.

You can find more info on the QA team here, and how to get started: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/QA_Team

This applies to anybody who sees this too. Come and get involved! Mageia is a community so relies on people, just like you, to get things done.

[laidlaws]

No thanks. Bug 12444, which makes KDE almost unusable, Bug 11666, which makes claws-mail unusable, and the GLX bug for nVidia cards, still exist, yet Mageia 4 is now official. There have been no updates. I switched my Cauldron to the Mga4 mirror and updated twice, as recommended. There were no new packages. It was apparently more important to release a buggy distro on time than to fix it first.

The best way to silence a critic is to get him working for you.

[doktor5000]

Well, there will always be bugs, as software is made by humans. But what does that have to do with this thread? Also you offered to contribute to QA,
whose work now only begins. You know, QA will not be lying around lazily until next Mageia version is released ...

[laidlaws]

"There will always be bugs." But in a distro version release, not of this magnitude. Claire herself posted the claws-mail bug as a release blocker. The Release Notes for 4 say that the nVidia driver still doesn't work, so "use the nouveau one." That is good enough for me, except that I still haven't got GLX, so no graphics program or xscreensaver work. But try to say thart to a gamer! It is an invitation to look elsewhere.

KDE, claws-mail and Xscanimage are affected by the same bug. Because xscanimage is a plug-in for Gimp, I can't use Gimp. There isn't much left that does work. Claire ran them with gdb as a workaround, and I did the same with strace, but these workarounds aren't mentioned in the Release Notes. Version 4 was released well before it was anything more than a hacker's (in the good sense of a self-help user's) paradise.

[doktor5000]

The Release Notes for 4 say that the nVidia driver still doesn't work, so "use the nouveau one." That is good enough for me, except that I still haven't got GLX, so no graphics program or xscreensaver work.

The Release notes don't say anything like that, the nvidia driver is working just fine. It's the impact on some programs that's the issue. And it say you could try to switch to Nouveau.

nVidia proprietary drivers / hybrid chipset

There can be issues with the nVidia proprietary drivers, we already downgraded to the more stable version 325 to minimize the issues.

Don't forget to try switching to nouveau (open source), which works perfect for many.

Apart from that, if you miss any information in the Errata or Release Notes, feel free to add them. That's what a wiki is meant for.


Anyways. this is completely getting offtopic.