Mandrake and rpms

[gotit7676]

I'm a true newbie that inherited a Mandrake 9.0 machine that has older versions of PHP, MySql and Apache. I was planning on uninstalling all of the above using the Mandrake Control Center. Here are my questions because I want to do this right and can't find good information on uninstalls:
I. If I then install using rpm or tarball, will it show up in the Mandrake Control Center for easy uninstalls later? Or do only rpms show up in the Mandrake Control Center?
2. Do I care if it shows up in the Mandrake control center later, i.e. are rpm uninstalls easy? are tarball uninstalls easy?
3. If you just want an easy, non-custom install because you're a baby linux user, is uninstalling easier from an rpm or tarball installation?
Thanks!

[chrism01]

Well, I use redhat, but its rpm based also ;)
Rpm install/uninstall is easier than tarballs. All the compile/setup is done for you eg
rpm -ivh file.rpm - to install
rpm -Uvh file.rpm - to upgrade
rpm -e file.rpm - to remove (erase)

Don't know about Mandrake, but Rh supplies a nice tool called up2date.
If you register with them, then you can use up2date to keep up with patches etc and up2date automatically resolves dependencies. Doing that by hand is a pig.
Hopefully Mandrake has similar option...?

[gotit7676]

Thx. I'll check into that.

[mdwatts]

http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/

For tarballs, look into using checkinstall.

Search the 'How I did it' forum for info on checkinstall.

[Nu-Bee]

Originally posted by gotit7676
I'm a true newbie that inherited a Mandrake 9.0 machine that has older versions of PHP, MySql and Apache. I was planning on uninstalling all of the above using the Mandrake Control Center. Here are my questions because I want to do this right and can't find good information on uninstalls:
I. If I then install using rpm or tarball, will it show up in the Mandrake Control Center for easy uninstalls later? Or do only rpms show up in the Mandrake Control Center?
2. Do I care if it shows up in the Mandrake control center later, i.e. are rpm uninstalls easy? are tarball uninstalls easy?
3. If you just want an easy, non-custom install because you're a baby linux user, is uninstalling easier from an rpm or tarball installation?
Thanks!

Hands down RPM's are easier....but CheckInstall for tarballs is great also.

[Dutch_64]

urpmi is easy too

urpmq [ program name ] tells if a package is available
urpmi [ program name ] will install packages and the dependencies .. must be done as root
urpme [ program name ] will uninstall programs ..this must be done as root too
urpmi * will install rpms that it finds in a folder


urpmi works with the info it gets from the " software sources manager " .. here u can add sources that have packages available , urpmi .addmedia does the same but from commandline , here also u can add ftp sites and such

have a look here and it should be clearer :)
http://plf.zarb.org/