[Gllug] gaim uninstall/reinstall problem

[Richard Huxton]

On Friday 06 February 2004 00:37, Will Napier wrote:
> I tried to install a Redhat security update. Being a newbie, I knew I
> had to do the equivalent of uninstall first. I had read that you just ahd
> to remove the relevant gaim files.

If you genuinely read advice to manually delete files installed via RPM, stop 
reading from that source. No real damage done this time though.

> Doing a search showed a fair few files,
> and I removed (rm command) the gaim binary executable (a purple square
> diamond icon) and a file called gaim.desktop.

OK - if you are going to use RPM (or any package manager) then stick to it - 
don't go manually adding/removing individual files the package manager 
doesn't know about. There are graphical tools for RPM - look for Add/Remove 
Applications or Package Management. Someone else suggests apt-rpm - there is 
a graphical tool called "synaptic" for that.

> I then rpm'd the redhat
> security update, and it said it needed three files, one of which was
> htmlview. After not being able to download these from rpmfind.com, I
> decided to rpm the original mandrake 9.2 rpm for gaim .75.

What has Mandrake got to do with a RedHat security upgrade? I'm a little 
confused here now.

> It said that it
> was already installed. But typing gaim in the command line didn't work.
> How can I get out of this all too typical newbie experience of linux and
> at least return to using the mandrake rpm for gaim .75? I guess I have to
> uninstall but what does this mean? Grateful thanks.

It said it was already installed because as far as the package manager was 
concerned, it was. So - from this point you either want to:
1. uninstall the packages concerned
2. force a reinstall

You can uninstall from the command-line using:
  rpm -e <mypackage1> <mypackage2>...
You can force an upgrade using:
  rpm -Uvh --force <rpm-file1> <rpm-file2> ...
You might be better off with one of the graphical installers though.

A good rule of thumb is: if you installed it using RPM, then use RPM to look 
upgrade/uninstall it. If you manually installed from source then you're 
responsible for upgrading/uninstalling.

-- 
  Richard Huxton
  Archonet Ltd
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