[plug] My first download: netscape...help?!

[John Summerfield]

> Hi all,
> 
> I've just finished ironing out all the problems I was having a month or so
> ago (had to put things on hold for exams) and staying up all night I've
> managed to get linux up and running and online.
> I even downloaded Netscape Communicator 4.7, decompressed it, and installed
> it using the script that came with it.
> Here's where I ran into trouble: what do I do with the netscape communicator
> 4.6 still hiding somewhere in my system?  How do I get rid of it?  I think
> it's conflicting with 4.7 as there's been some odd behaviour from both of
> them.

If you're using Red Hat Linux or a derivative, you should have downloaded 
the netscape 4.7 rpms for your system. If you have some other 
distribution, the comments here apply, but need som translation for 
whatever tools you do have; debian has equivalents (and its proponents say 
they're better), but they do similar things.

You could then have either updated from the commandline:
	rpm --upgrade <package names>

or used the GUI equivalent (gnorpm or kpackage).

You could find what netscape packages rpm thinks you have thus:
[summer at possum summer]$ rpm -qa | grep nets
netscape-communicator-4.7-1
netscape-common-4.7-1
[summer at possum summer]$ 

and you can remove them:
	rpm --erase netscape-communicator netscape-common

I suggest you do this last, but then you'd better rerun that script just 
in case there is a collision. The disatvantages of what I think you've 
done:
1	rpm doesn't know you have the new version; your RHL upgrade won't 
upgrade it
2	The command "rpm -qa" won't tell you its installed because it's not in 
your rpm database.
3	rpm can't erase it because it's not in its database. Even if you update 
its database, its idea of where the component pieces are may differ from 
reality.

Note that in the particular case of Netscape, there are three *86.rpm 
packages. You need netscape-common but only one of the other two.


-- 
Cheers
John Summerfield
http://os2.ami.com.au/os2/ for OS/2 support.
Configuration, networking, combined IBM ftpsites index.