Topic: YUM install of Gnome fails

[mophilly]

NOTE: this question is in regards to a "science project", in which we are not using SME 7.5.x as designed. This is only a test on vm, so don't panic. That said, your help is sincerely encouraged.

I need to install GUI to provide a gui driver to support another application that requires a frame buffer. I attempted an install of Gnome, as follows:

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yum install metacity gnome-desktop gnome-session gnome-terminal
Things zoomed along famously until the header for redhat logos was requested. All of the mirrors responded with a 404, and the yum process aborted on the "no more mirrors to try" error. For example:

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http://mirror.stanford.edu/yum/pub/centos/4.8/os/i386/RPMS/redhat-logos-1.1.26-1.centos4.4.noarch.rpm: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404: Not Found
Trying other mirror.
I see that yum is searching the path ".../centos/4.8/os/i386/RPMS". However, the path shown in a web browser for the same mirror is ".../centos/4.8/os/i386/CentOS/RPMS/".

Note the extra "CentOS" element preceding "/RPMS/" in the latter snippet.

Why might that be?

[cactus]

You are far better of using RedHat or CentOS if your desire is a graphic window manager, they are mainly meant for desktop PCs which SME Server is not.

The CentOS mirrors are not under our control, so there is nothing SME Server or contribs.org can do for you.

[chris burnat]

Moving to General Discussion

[mophilly]

You are far better of using RedHat or CentOS if your desire is a graphic window manager, they are mainly meant for desktop PCs which SME Server is not.

My experiment is not a desktop PC, but requires a server. You could not know this, of course. I apologize for making the assumption that posting to this forum would imply that a desktop distro was of no interest.

The CentOS mirrors are not under our control, so there is nothing SME Server or contribs.org can do for you.

Of course. I thought I was pretty clear that this is not an "SME thing". Rather, just an experiment.

I am still wondering, btw, why would the path be different on SME than on another distro?

[CharlieBrady]

My experiment is not a desktop PC, but requires a server.

"gnome-desktop" is a very unusual resident of a server.

[mophilly]

"gnome-desktop" is a very unusual resident of a server.

Yes, it most certainly is. I am not happy that it is necessary. It happens that a software being used in the experiment was written with a dependency on a visual frame buffer, and this is present in the "server" version. If the experiment is successful, I hope to convince the author to remove this dependency.

Of course, if this little exercise in self-inflicted torment is successful, and the author is unwilling or unable to accommodate my wishes, there will be justification to use other means to eliminate the need for a GUI.

[mophilly]

I attempted an install of Gnome, as follows:

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yum install metacity gnome-desktop gnome-session gnome-terminal

On the off chance that someone else finds themselves reading this thread, and has not been properly disabused of the folly I am engaged in, here is the solution to my problem.

It seems there is a dependency on metacity in the gnome packages. Successful install was achieved by splitting the yum install command into two parts, as follows:

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yum install metacity;
yum install gnome-desktop gnome-session gnome-terminal;
Happy days!

[CharlieBrady]

Yes, it most certainly is. I am not happy that it is necessary. It happens that a software being used in the experiment was written with a dependency on a visual frame buffer, and this is present in the "server" version.

I'd be quite surprised if you could not have a visual frame buffer without gnome-desktop being installed.

[mophilly]

I'd be quite surprised if you could not have a visual frame buffer without gnome-desktop being installed.

Yes, it is possible to do. Something like Xvfb, e.g. xorg-x11-server-Xvfb.x86_64, would probably do the trick.

I am just following the author's directions at the moment. If we get to the desired end point, a review to eliminate excess will certainly be the order of the day.