If you installed the GNOME desktop during system installation, the installation procedure automatically installed GnoRPM by default. If you installed X but chose the KDE desktop rather than GNOME, you can manually install GnoRPM by inserting Disc 1 of Red Hat Linux in your system’s CD-ROM drive and issuing the following commands:

su -
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom -o ro
rpm --replacepkgs -Uvh /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS/gnorpm-*.rpm
umount /mnt/cdrom
exit

You can launch GnoRPM from a terminal window by issuing the command:

               gnorpm &

Or, depending on your desktop configuration, you may by able to launch GnoRPM from the GNOME or KDE menu. To do so, select Main Menu → Programs → System → GnoRPM.

Shortly after you launch GnoRPM, its main window appears, as shown in Figure 8-3.

Figure 8-3. GnoRPM

The left half of the window contains a tree that represents the installed package hierarchy, organized by category. If you click on a subtree, the right half of the GnoRPM window displays the packages that reside in the subtree, as shown in Figure 8-4.

Figure 8-4. Selecting a package subtree

If you right-click on an icon representing a package, a pop-up menu lets you query, uninstall, or verify the package. You can also select these operations by clicking the appropriate icon in the toolbar. If you select the query item, the Package Info window, as shown in Figure 8-5, appears. As you can see, this window shows the same information as that provided by the rpm -l command. The top panel describes the package, and the bottom panel lists the files it contains.

Figure 8-5. The Package Info window

If you select the Verify item, the Verifying Packages window, as shown in Figure 8-6, appears. As explained, verifying a package checks the files owned by the package against their original contents. Verifying a package can help you troubleshoot incorrect package operation. If a program isn’t working correctly, you can verify its package. If the result shows that files have been inappropriately changed, you can repair the damage by reinstalling the package.

Figure 8-6. The Verifying Packages window

You can also use GnoRPM to query packages by their attributes by clicking on the Find icon on the toolbar. The Find Packages window, shown in Figure 8-7, appears. You can select the type of query you want to perform (for example, finding packages that contain a specific file) and provide the name of a file, group, or package. The following types of queries are supported:

Clicking Find starts the query; the results appear in the text area.

Figure 8-7. The Find Packages window

To install or upgrade a package, click the Install icon on the toolbar. This launches the Install window, shown in Figure 8-8, which lets you choose the package files you want to install or upgrade. Using the Filter list at the top of the window, you can specify what package files you want to view; generally, the All But Installed Packages setting is appropriate, since you don’t generally want to view packages that are already installed. Click the Add button to obtain the list of packages. GnoRPM searches a set of specified directories for packages and lists the packages. Section 8.9.6 explains how to specify the list of directories that GnoRPM searches.

Figure 8-8. The Install window

Clicking on a package filename causes GnoRPM to display a brief description of the package. To specify packages to be installed or upgraded, set the checkbox appearing to the right of the package filename. Then click Install or Upgrade to begin the desired operation.

GnoRPM can also help you find new packages. Click the Web Find button to launch the Rpmfind dialog box, shown in Figure 8-9. To operate the dialog box, type a search word in the text box at the top of the dialog box and click Search. GnoRPM searches a web database for packages related to the word you typed, listing matching packages in the left window. If you click on the name of a package, the dialog box displays a description of the package. Click Download to download the selected package or Install to download and install the selected package.

Figure 8-9. The Rpmfind dialog box

GnoRPM provides several configuration options. To view these, select Operations → Preferences. GnoRPM displays the Behavior tab of the Preferences dialog box, as shown in Figure 8-10.

Figure 8-10. GnoRPM’s Behavior tab, located in the Preferences dialog box

Generally, you should not modify the setting of the Behavior tab. The Package Listing tab lets you choose whether packages are shown as icons or text. You may prefer the textual display, which provides more information than the iconic display.

The Install Window tab, shown in Figure 8-11, lets you specify the directories that GnoRPM searches for new packages. Generally, the directory /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS appears on this list. If your CD-ROM drive is configured to use a different mount point, or if you want to access packages made available via NFS, you can use the Install Window tab to specify the directories you prefer.

Figure 8-11. The Install Window tab

The Network tab is useful if you need to configure proxies to circumvent a local firewall. It lets you specify HTTP and FTP proxies and the user ID and password needed to access them.

The Rpmfind tab lets you specify the server used to search the Web for packages, called a metadata server. The default server is a host operated by Red Hat. You can specify a different server, if you prefer. However, bear in mind that some RPM packages may not be compatible with your Red Hat Linux system. Installing an incompatible package can result in system instability.