Dear Drifting
I am no expert here and am still learning myself, but this may help.
> What I would like to know is what can you do to stop
> dependancies when installing packages.
I don't think you can "stop" dependencies between packages as such, as one rpm may definitely be expecting another rpm to be present in order to work, but you can force packages to instal by using the --nodeps switch and you will not get any dependency error message during instal then.
eg
rpm -Uvh --nodeps rpmname
> Now the reason for the question is the Port forward RPM
> requires a different packet filter RPM to the one Freeswan
> RPM requires? Confused? well I am.
> Am I to take it then, that you cannot run both ?
I cannot answer that interdependency issue for you as I have not used those rpms, but I would assume it really depends on the requirements of the package.
One rpm may be happy to use (ie operate with) a different version rpm than the one it actually depends on, but you would have to force the instal using --nodeps as above. You will find out if it works OK during day to day usage. Of course the opposite may be true also (ie won't work with a different rpm) and then you may be stuck with it.
A way to get around these issues is to try to instal the packages in an order that
does not have depedency problems, but you may only find this out by trial and error.
You can also uninstal rpm packages and reinstal earlier ones that are required for dependency issues during instal, and after the instal is conplete then instal the different or newer version rpms. I spent a couple of hours uninstalling rpms until I sorted out all the depedency issues and then installed a whole lot of newer rpms to update them, and it all worked OK in the end.
You should not have to reinstal your whole operating system 10 times to sort this out though, just do
rpm -e rpmname (without the numbers)
and that will uninstal whatever you have installed, and then you can try the instal (of the particular rpms) again in a different order or using different switches.
Having said all the above, searching the contribs.org site, as Kelvin has suggested, for packages that all work together is probably the best practical answer.
> Even old uncle bills software works with itself!
I have come across plenty of examples where one version of a MS Windows product will not work when another version (of not necessarily the same product) is installed, and at other times installing a newer version cripples some parts of an older version, so I don't think these issues are Linux only !!
> .........I feel I must let off steam about the
> confusing updates and rpms that all do the same job, but
> require different versions.
I don't disagree with you here, but it seems to me that if you want to "do things yourself" in the Linux world "and reap the benefits", then you must be prepared to put in a bit of research and learning. There are helpful places like these forums and others to ask when you get stuck though.
Hope this may be of some help
Regards
Ray.
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