Dependency resolution-gratuitous whining included

[Bobbleson]

Hi guys. I came here for some help, but I can't find the means to word my question without throwing in some whining, so please bear with me. :o

Here goes: I have a reasonably decent background in MS technologies, but I am a fresh-from-the-farm newbie when it comes to Linux. I have installed RedHat 8.0 without too much trouble, and everything that was pre-installed has been working nicely for the most part, with the exception of sound. So, I decided to begin my Linux journey by fixing that. I managed to sort that out (that was a journey in itself), and decided a rewarding next step was to play a few of my bought-and-paid-for MP3's under Linux.

Begin frustration.

I imported my MP3's just fine into Linux, and fired up XMMS that RH so kindly included in their distro. Unfortunately, it appears that the MP3 decoding portion isn't installed. I go through the motions of loading an MP3 file, and XMMS just sits there as if I didn't do a thing. :confused:

So, I decided to get the latest version of XMMS from their website. They happened to have an RPM of the software for my version of RH, so I downloaded it and double-clicked the package in the GUI. It started doing some official-looking unpacking and "dependency resolution," then informed me that I couldn't install it because it couldn't find a package for...something I forget the name of.

I did some web research and found that that "something" was part of the ELSA audio stack. So, I jumped over to their website and downloaded the tarball of the latest drivers for that. Again I double-click in the GUI, the tarball is unpacked to a folder. I find & read install.txt, which tells me that I need the source code for my kernel to compile the drivers. "Surely I've got that," I thought.

Nope.

I tried to "make" the drivers, and was promptly informed that I didn't have the kernel source installed at the default location. So, I poked around and couldn't find it anywhere else, either. Being the good newbie, I jumped on to the RH website, located the appropriate kernel source SRPM, and downloaded it, too. I then again double-clicked in the GUI and the official dependency resolution began...and once again I come up short. RH tells me I can't install the kernel source until I have the "glib" programming package. :mad:

I have to admit that at this point I gave up for the night. So, finally, to the point of my crying: Am I going about this the wrong way? Is there some magical process that eludes me? I have my pride, and it pains me to say this, but this seems like an entirely too complicated process for something so simple as installing a stinkin' music player. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for bearing with me, you guys are great, please be gentle with me. ;)

[Bobbleson]

Hmm...I just found some answers to my questions regarding the MP3 stuff in an earlier thread. Note to self: read before you post.:rolleyes:

So...I'll limit my question to a general one: Is this package dependency game a common thing? Do you have to go through this mess every time you want to install new software?:confused:

[Hayl]

if you are missing a dependancy for something you are installing, then yes. some distros (debian, gentoo) have nice packaging systems that do all the deps for you. there is a hack of the debian apt (packaging system) for red hat called apt4rpm that you could try. there are many posts about it - if you search you will likely find a link explaining how to install apt4rpm.

[soleblazer]

Everyone will have thier own opinion on this one.

I come from a solaris background where normally we dont do as much of the things you are doing. At home I ran Win95 while I was in HS, then during college I started on RH7. I dont run M$ products anymore, I run staroffice, Redhat, gaim, etc, etc.

That being said, it sometimes is a huge pain in the *** to do the simplest of things in linux. The thing you are going thru, that is unfortuanatly not that uncommon. It doesnt happen to everyone , but some it does. I recently ran thru the exact same problem while trying to compile the latest version of X-Screensaver.

My advice is to not give up, and always install header and source files when you put down an install. I would be intrested to see your errors, sometimes the dependencies are bogus (not normally though) and you can simply tell rpm to ignore the deps, I dont recommend this though.

All in all, I have slowly been switching from Solaris to Linux on many of the servers at work, as servers Linux box's tend to be sweet as hell, normally due to the fact that you dont run all the little prog's that require graphics, etc.

I think Debian has a nicer package install tool that will try and get the dependant packages for you, not sure though, I run only Redhat and Suse at work/home...but I heard that.

Hang in there, once you get that Linux box up and running YOU WILL NOT MISS M$ in any way. Linux has a ways to go yet before the avg Joe (not that I am calling you that) can easily just work with it.

[DMR]

Originally posted by Bobbleson
I find & read install.txt, which tells me that I need the source code for my kernel to compile the drivers. "Surely I've got that," I thought.

Nope.Nope indeed. For some weird reason, the kernel source/header packages and other development packages (compilers, for example) aren't installed by default. Everything you need is on the install CDs, but unless you specifically select the packages, on the CDs they stay!

Why this is, I don't understand- most Linux users are going to have the need to compile at some point in their life.... :confused:

[sharth]

Well, red hat dropped mp3 support anywho, not sure if this was mentioned or noticed.

[DMR]

Originally posted by sharth
Well, red hat dropped mp3 support anywho Yup- damn legalities... :(

[fredg]

Originally posted by sharth
Well, red hat dropped mp3 support anywho, not sure if this was mentioned or noticed.

And www.freshrpms.net has been plugging MP3 support back in. They started just as soon as Red Hat removed MP3 support and have been at it ever since.

--------------
Summary: XMMS plugin for mp3 playback.
This is the mp3 plugin for XMMS that was removed from Red Hat Linux because the patented mp3 format itself is theoretically GPL incompatible.

[Bobbleson]

Yeah, I've read quite a bit about the MP3 thing the past couple of days. Somewhere along the way I came across the mp32ogg converter, which I may apply to my MP3's to make them Ogg Vorbis, but I understand that it reduces quality in the conversion...I dunno.

Thanks for the help, folks...it's nice to have some helpful been-theres in my corner. :D

[ColeSlaw]

Bobbleson - If you care to know, I converted my mp3 files to OGGs and there seems to be little if any loss of quality. I had quite a few bitrates ranging from 128 to 320. If it is a real issue I would recommend ripping them from the CD again if that is where you got them from. That usually produces awesome results with OGG.

Also, I wanted to mention that I previously used RedHat 8.0 and 9.0 and I had quite a few issues with dependancy headaches myself. I switched to Gentoo recently and it has solved all my problems. Their website has great documentation, and really helps you get everything setup. Also, their forum is full of useful information, although I must admit that it's search function could be a little better.

Installing Gentoo can be tricky and time consuming though, mostly time consuming. If you can still logon to the internet and go to the help files on Gentoos homepage you should have no problem installing it.

It does compile everything from source, and takes A LOT of time to install stuff. Browse the forum a little and you will quickly see topics such as, "Installing Gentoo, what do you watch while you install" The author of the help documents on gentoo.org suggests starwars ;)

Anyway, just wanted to share some of my expirences/opinions since you seem to be in a boat similar to one I was once in. Hope it helps, and welcome to Linux!

[sharth]

I had filesize go up as well when its converting to mp3 from ogg...

I would only encode from wav to ogg though. check xmms.org for a mp3 plugin.

[Thrasher]

Hey Bobbleson,
you wouldn't happen to have the link to that thread you mentioned handy would you? I'd like to take a look at that cuz I have similar issues. Lots of good answers here, but the more the marrier right?

[sharth]

http://justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=114162 is the only other thread that he has replied to.

[Bobbleson]

Thrasher, I found what I needed here (http://justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=114086) and by following the second of two links to searches in that same thread. In short, I wound up going to freshrpms.net and downloading the MP3 plugin for XMMS.

ColeSlaw, I did go back to CD and re-rip to OGG for a few tracks...you're right, it turned out rather well. I didn't try the conversion but I probably should, just to keep things legal. ;)

[dboyer]

I had a lot of the same problems when i started out, so here we go:

1 word: synaptic... go to http://shrike.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=896 and download this badboy... it downloads a list of rpms (ones that freshrpms is offering, i assume) and you click one to download, it automatically downloads all of the dependancies...

One problem you were having was downloading the kernel source... i could never get the installer from RH's ftp site to install right... one double click in synaptic and i was home free... should do all the mp3 stuff, everything you've mentioned in your post... good piece of software for us redhatters