various missing packages in FC4

[Temlakos]

[=Jorge Boscan Etura=] wrote:
> same history here, somehow i managed to install synaptic via yum then
> i installed fresrpms-release from dag's or livna's repo (dont
> remember) and with it installed everythin else, totem is broken thou,
> at least in my rh8->rh9->fc1->fc2->fc4 box
> 
> 2005/6/22, Amadeus W. M. <amadeus84 at cablespeed.com>:
> 
>>Besides pan, which now everybody knows, where did gv and gtkam go?
>>Is there a replacement for gtkam? Or do I leave my pictures on the camera?
>>
>>Also, what's the scoop with mixing repositories? I'd really like mplayer,
>>transcode, dvdauthor, ffmpeg, but the only place I can find them is
>>ayo.freshrpms.net. If I can't get these from 3rd party repositories, can
>>there be non-fedora, but fedora-compatible multimedia repository?
>>
>>And what's up with apt?

A few insights:

I'd be shocked to find livna carrying the freshrpms-release rpm. Must 
have been dag, since they cooperate quite closely.

Recently I installed the Smart Package Manager (http://www.smartpm.org/) 
and /finally/ figured out what I was doing wrong. Apt, yum, and other 
PM's routinely and implicitly give you a channel to the installed base 
of packages on your system. Smart, being a "universal PM," does not--so 
you have to /tell/ it where to find your installed base. Fortunately, 
that's not too hard: you add a "channel" to "RPM Installed Packages."

Once you do that, you add channels for all your yum repos, and other 
channels "Mirror information (up2date format)" for all your mirror 
lists. Then you rank your yum repos ("RPM metadata") in order of 
priority. I set base, updates-released, extras, livna, yjl-noarch, 
yjl-i386, jpackage-generic, and jpackage-fedora to the highest priority. 
Then I can add freshrpms and dag at a slightly lower priority, and 
at-stable at a still lower priority. That way, packages don't break one 
another with conflicts.

Since I fixed Smart (actually I got the tip from its creator after 
reporting a problem), I haven't had a lick of trouble with it, and I 
find that it even works faster than yum or apt. Just one thing: on FC4, 
you have to install it from source. Dag and Axel have not yet rebuilt 
smart for FC4. (They must be still working on their repos!) Anyone out 
there who can tell me how to write a decent .spec file for building my 
own RPM for smart, please share, or at least share a good link. (I 
recently got into RPM building, when I wanted to install Java in a 
manner consistent with the FC4 release notes. JPackage.org has some 
excellent advice on how to set up a secure RPM build environment and how 
to get started with RPM building.)

Beyond that: Livna has a version of MPlayer, but I found it broken. So I 
made an exception for MPlayer and gave FreshRPMS version the highest 
priority.

ffmpeg and the others should be on livna. If they aren't--well, get 
smart (as in smart pm) and configure it as I described above, and you'll 
have safe access.

Basically, you don't want to put freshrpms, dag, at, newrpms (if they 
/ever/ get their act together; last time they didn't get their FC3 
directory set up until April), or dries (not ready yet last time I 
checked) on the same level as base, updates-released, extras, and livna. 
If you do, you'll break things--as I know only too well. But with a pm 
like smart, you don't have to worry about it. Set them up with a lower 
priority, and they won't conflict with same-named packages on the main 
ones. (And I must say that extras is looking better all the time.)

Totem has always been broken for DVD's. I have that as an active issue 
right now with BugZilla. Why don't you install vlc and its gui package? 
/That/ works--and even loads the DVD menu when you open a disc.

gtkam is obsolete. Now, when you plug in your camera or card reader, it 
automatically mounts as a USB file system. So you work with your 
pictures in Nautilus, using Nautilus to transfer or delete them.

Extras should have apt--I'm sure I saw it there. I haven't seen synaptic 
in awhile, though.

Finally, if it was formerly in base or updates-released and now it 
isn't, then it's probably in extras or is now superseded. Extras is 
configured by default in FC4 for yum, and I wouldn't hesitate to use it.

Temlakos