Important: Apache install problem

From Keith Richard

Answered By Faber Fedor, Ben Okopnik, Heather Stern

Respected sir,

[Faber] Actually, that would be "sirs" since we more than one and you'd have to include a...uh...a "sir-ess" for Heather. Or is that "sir-ette"? Someone wanna help me out here?

[Ben] I think that's Yiddish for "trouble".

[Faber] Or is that "sir-ette"?

[Ben] That's a heavy-duty battery company. Striking out there, Faber...

[Faber] Someone wanna help me out here?

[Ben] "Ma'am".

[Heather] We're an entire Answer Gang; "Respected Answerfolk" would satisfy Ms.Emily Post.

Your subject needs work, telling people your stuff is "important" around here implies that the other 200 querents aren't. Or something like that.

[Ben] I'm sure the querent has read <http://www.linuxgazette.com/tag/ask-the-gang.html#bad_subject>;

and would never simply waste electrons on gratuitous self-promotion like that - so it should definitely be taken seriously!

[Heather] Now taking on the style of the original Answer Guy, if I'm gonna turn on the flamethrower I'm not gonna turn it back off until I've toasted you some marshmallows to go with that scorch mark. Asbestos clothing is available on sale at the gift shop on your way out

I was trying to install apache*.rpm in my system.

[Heather] Gentle Querent,

Could you be more specific? There are several not terribly compatible RPM based distros. In fact that could well be your problem, putting a redhat RPM on a SuSE box, a SuSE RPM on a Mandrake box, a conversion from (package type here) to rpm via alien ... uh, there's just too many variables.

So it really does matter, exactly which RPM you are trying to install, and which distro you are trying to install it onto.

Maybe looking into its control tidbits by running mc (midnight commander) and looking into the RPM would reveal what distro it was built for.

Frankly most of the sysadmins I know who feel Apache is very important to their setup reach for upstream sources and build their own, so they know for sure it's up to date and which options it has been built with. They feel it's important to know exactly what version of software they are depending on, that it's happy with the rest of the libraries which already exist on exactly this server.

In fact some folk I know keep the general opinion that as soon as a package manager gives you trouble, it's time to Use The Source, Luke. Reach out with your feelings, know the build system around you. All things are connected... errr, linked, after you run ./Configure, make, (if you're paranoid) make test, make install.

But there is a message like "error dependencies:

        libmm.so.11 is needed to install apache*

[Faber] You need to install the file libmm.so. Where do you get the file libmm.so? I don't know, it's not on my system.

[Heather] libmm is a rather basic and popular library. Probably you'll end up updating many basic parts before long, Perhaps you have an RPM for the right distro, but a later revision of it.

I've tried upgrading a system via RPMs parts at a time like that. There's a reason my fellow techies call it "dependency hell".

[Faber] So let's go to google. Type in "libmm.so" and the very first link says:

RPM resource libmm.so.1. Provided by. mm-1.1.3-9.i386, A shared memory
 library.

See that "Provided by"? That tells you what program provides libmm. In this case, it's the package mm (they should all be that obvious!).

What commands I will need to complete my job?

[Faber] Where do you get this package? Well, you didn't tell me which distribution or version of Linux you're running. I would suggest either looking on your CDs or clicking on the link from google.

[Heather]


(a correct RPM for your exact distro revision)
(any supporting RPMs it also needs)
rpm -Uvh (rpmname) (rpmname2) (rpmname3)

Don't type those parentheses, mind you, just the actual filenames...

--or--


ftp to get the sources
follow the build instructions inside the Apache tarball

Don't be too surprised if you might need to make sure you have some specific libraries present to complete your build; and the matching .h files, often found in (some library name)-devel RPMs.

Looking for your early reply.

[Heather] A willingness to poke around apache.org and read up about installation might be handy too.

You are most welcome to read past issues of the Linux Gazette online to get familiar with general installation tricks.

Winning the TAG lotto is not guaranteed, nor is timeliness of answer, usefulness of answer, or keeping the flamethrower lit while you're out. We're all volunteers here. But, if that's not ok, we could point you toward some consulting resources. Ask nicely, and some of the gang who do consulting might give you their own rates.

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