Mint and RPM

RPM - Redhat Package Manager - on Atari Mint

RPM allows software packages to be installed / removed on Atari Mint. Powerful Unix software are package in RPM format and can be downloaded from the Atari SpareMint Archives. There are development tools such as gcc, network tools such as DHCP, are all there available for you to exploit.

In depth information about WTF is RPM may be found at the official RPM Wiki site.

Download the RPM bootstrap bundle and tools

The RPM bootstrap bundle contains all the folder structure and files required for MiNT to process RPM files.

1. 1. - The RPM bundle (rootfs+rpm-3.06.tgz) can be downloaded from here
    - The tools (gzip_tar.lzh) to unarchive the bundle can be download from here

2. Transfer downloaded files to Ext2 file system partition

Copy the rootfs+rpm-3.06.tgz and the gzip_tar.lzh files to the root of the Ext2 filesystem. As the files has long filename, use the Ext2 file system. We assume your Ext2 FS which supports long filename is located in Drive D:.

3. Decompress the gzip_tar.lzh into root of Ext2 file system (D: drive)

Unlzh the gzip_tar.lzh using LHZARC or equivalent on to drive D. Note the filename case of the LZH file.

The 2 files - gzip and tar will be produced. You need to make these 2 files executable from the Ext2 file system.

- - On the Teradesk desktop, single click to select gzip.
  - With gzip selected, press CTRL-I to bring out the FILE INFORMATION (see picture).
  - Make the file gzip executable by ticking (enable) all the X column (executable bits). Click OK when done.
  - Do the same for the tar file.
  - Note that these are temporary programs, which we will delete away after the installation.

4. Run the Shell program

Run the temporary shell to continue the setup.

Double click on the SH.TOS file that you copied to C:\MINT\BIN earlier on otherwise download from here.

A GEM window will be displayed where the shell is running, you can enter commands into MiNT.

5. Use GZIP and TAR to decompress and extract the root folders archive

In the command shell, enter

- - cd /d ==> to change the working directory to D: drive
  - /d/gzip -d /d/rootfs+rpm-3.06.tgz ==> to decompress the root folders to rootfs+rpm-3.06.tar.
  - /d/tar -xpf /d/rootfs+rpm-3.06.tar ==> to extract the root folders. Take note that the file is rootfs+rpm-3.06.tar.

6. Check the extra folder structure on /d

Now open the GEM Drive D: and note that there are more folders created when the rootfs+rpm-3.06.tar is unTared. You can remove the file root.tar, rootfs+rpm-3.06.tar, gzip and tar from the root of drive D:.

7. Test RPM command

Download a RPM file from the SpareMint archive. To test the RPM, unzip-5.50-1.m68kmint.rpm package is used as example here. It can be downloaded from here.

Following the screenshot above:

1. 1. 1. The unzip-5.50-1.m68kmint.rpm file is copied to the Fat32 partition (Drive E:) as it is a long file name.
    2. Change directory ( cd ) to /e and list ( ls ) the rpm files on the root of the drive.
    3. Display what's installed by typing "rpm -qa" nothing is listed.
    4. List ( ls ) the file /usr/bin/unzip - no such file found as it is not installed yet.
    5. Install the package "rpm -iv unzip-5.50-1.m68kmint.rpm" the -iv means install verbose - it display unzip-5.50-1 as installed.
    6. Display what's installed by typing "rpm -qa" - it list unzip as installed.
    7. List ( ls ) the file /usr/bin/unzip - yeap it's now found and copied into the folder /usr/bin.