Install & remove Software
From Mandriva Community Wiki
Drakrpm (or rpmdrake) is a program for installing, uninstalling and updating software and packages. It is the graphical user interface of urpmi. Drakrpm is the major part of the program, and we distinguish two modes (drakrpm-edit-media and drakrpm-update) who accomplish more specific tasks. All three tools are integrated in the Mandriva Control Center.
To launch Drakrpm :
- Click on the Star Menu and select Install & remove software.
or
Contents |
Usage
This software and package manager is one of the main tools for Mandriva Linux. With Drakrpm, you can install applications and packages of your choice, update them, and uninstall them as you want. All the applications and packages are classified into categories inside the left side bar.
At each start up, the package manager will check online package lists (called 'medias') downloaded straight from Mandriva's official servers, and will show you each time the latest applications and packages available for your computer.
A filter system allows you to display only certain types of packages : you may only display installed applications (by default), or only available updates. You can also view only not installed packages. You can also search by the name of a package, or in the summaries of descriptions or in the full descriptions of packages or in the file names included in the packages.
Interface
- 1. Package type filter :This filter allows you to display only certain types of packages. The first time you start the manager, it only displays the applications. You can display either all the packages and all their dependencies and libraries or only package groups such as applications only, updates only or backported packages from newer versions of Mandriva Linux.
- 2. Package state filter : This filter allows you to view either only the installed packages, the packages that are not installed or all of the packages, both installed and not installed.
- 3. Search mode : Click on this icon to search through the package names, through their summaries, through their complete description or through the files included in the packages.
- 4. "Find" box : Enter here one or more key words. If you want to use more than one keyword for searching use '|' between keywords. E.g. if you want to search for mplayer and xine at the same time type 'mplayer | xine'.
- 5. Erase all : This icon can erase in one click all entered key words in the "Find" box .
- 6. Categories list : This side bar groups all applications and packages into clear categories and sub categories.
- 7. Description panel : This panel displays the package's name, its summary and complete description. It displays many useful elements about the selected package. It can also show precise details about the package, the files included in the package as well as a list of the last changes made by the maintainer.
Legend :
 : This package is already installed.
|  : This package is an update.
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|---|---|
 : This package will be installed.
|  : This package will be uninstalled.
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 : This package cannot be modified.
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The two other functionalities
Configure the medias
To configure software medias (also called repositories), you must use the module 
drakrpm-edit-media. It can be launched :
- from the Software manager, then Options > Software medias manager.
- from a console using the command drakrpm-edit-media.
this mode allows you to configure the medias to be used to install and update packages and applications. This module is particularly useful for configuring official repositories. It gives the possibility to control which type of application you wish to see and have access to in the software manager.
To learn more about what media offers what type of applications, you can visit the article about sources.
Since Mandriva 2009.0, the switches M.A.J. (updates) cannot be ticked as usual. To modify these switches, you need to go through the console and type drakrpm-edit-media --expert. This will make it start mode expert, and help preventing errors.
Mandriva Update
To update, you can use the 
drakrpm-update module. It can be launched from the Control Center or in console by typing drakrpm-update or MandrivaUpdate.
It is able to search updates for all the packages and applications installed, and so installs the latest packages using the activated medias. For more information, you can visit the How-to Update article.
Legend :
 : Normal update
|
 : Bug fixing update
|
 : Security update
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Usage in console
Additionally to graphical package managers explained above, there are in console mode a lot of tools and functions to manage programs and packages who share the same medias (in this way, you can choose to adopt the console way, or graphical, or simply use both). RPMDrake is based on Urpmi, the following commands gives the possibility to do the same manipulations of the package manager but into a console.
urpm(i,e,f,q) is the tool for installing programs. It must be used with root privileges (except for most of the uses of urpmq and urpmf).
| Installs a package | urpmi <name_of_package> |
| Installs all the packages present in the current folder | urpmi *.rpm |
| Installs the packages written in a list | while read i ; do urpmi --auto $i ; done < myrpms.txt |
| Uninstalls a package and all its dependencies | urpme <name_of_package> |
| Asks for a package in the urpmi database | urpmq <name_of_package> |
| Find out in which packages a precise file is located | urpmf <file> |
| Update the system | urpmi --auto-update |
| Lists the packages containing a specified word | urpmq -Y <word> |
| Lists the packages without dependencies | urpmi_rpm-find-leaves |
| Display information on one package | urpmq -i the_package |
| Save the list of installed packages into a file | rpm -qa | sort > myrpms.txt |
| Save the list of installed packages into a file without the version numbers | rpm -qa --queryformat '%{name}\n' | sort > myrpms.txt |
| Update a source | urpmi.update source_name |
| Update all sources | urpmi.update -a |
| Remove a source | urpmi.removemedia la_source |
| Remove all sources | urpmi.removemedia -a |
You will find a more complete guide on the urpmi page...
Internal links
- Installing and removing software
- Install packages in console using Urpmi
- Wiki page about software medias (sources)
- Configuring official repositories
