D'loading RPMs: I've the Q. if U've the A.
Hi to all: It was not without some trepidation that I embarked on my attempt at downloading an RPM, in this case a bunch of no less than 8 for SuSE kernel 2.4.16, only because they're not available on a CD. I never tried downloading before because I know myself, and I know I don't have the patience for games. One thing I'm not is a masochist; banging my head against a wall isn't my preferred form of entertainment. I don't mind staying with one problem IF (big IF!) I see a steady, measurable progress. That's not the present case. End of rant. The three short RPMs (jfsprogs, modutils, reiserfs) d'l'ded without problems. The four 13 MBs were another story. Although eventually I got them all, none took fewer than three attempts. Then, it came the time for the last one, the 32 MB kernel-source. The first attempt went well until I had 28% down, when the progress window in Mozilla showed "Download complete." I thought "complete" meant 100%; it must be a new kind of math. Right away, the system asked for a file to d'l'd to. Since I ignored the request, it began d'l'ding to a /tmp file. After a short while, it started all over again, to *another* /tmp file. And then, still to another, a which point I cut out the connection. I looked in MC to make sure, the files were not a continuation of one to another, but started from the beginning. The next attempt was "complete" at 22%. One of the attempts died out at 1% (I called my ISP, to verify if there was something wrong on their part, I was assured there wasn't.) The last attempt, this morning, went well until I had already 54%, at which point it asked for another file. Sure... Since I have no previous experience, Q1- is this behavior normal? Q2- am I doing something wrong? Thanks for your words of encouragement and advice. Regards, gr (in sunny, warm Florida) **"In war, it counts not who's right, but who's left."** /Ann Landers/
On Thursday 21 February 2002 13:49, gilson redrick wrote: [Snipped post regarding downloading problems]
gr (in sunny, warm Florida)
You must be in a different part of the state. It's overcast here (78F though, so I'm not complaining). I do all my downloading using the Opera browser, which is available free (advertising supported) from www.opera.com. One of the reasons I use it, is its built in download manager. It allows you to resume aborted downloads without starting over. You can even stop a download and pick it up again later. On the couple of odd occasions when I have had a download "complete" that really wasn't, I found that clicking on resume would clean it up almost immediately. I download to a dedicated download subdirectory under /home/'user'. If I'm downloading a number of files for a particular upgrade, I'll create a separate subdirectory under my download subdirectory. I can do this directly in Opera. Should you decide to try Opera, I suggest you download (using Konquerer perhaps) the 5.x version. The 6.xTP (technology preview) version is a beta with a fancy name. -- Regards, Malcolm KMail l.3.1 -- KDE 2.2.2 -- SuSE Linux 7.3 Remove the dots to email me
On Thursday 21 February 2002 01:49 pm, gilson redrick wrote:
Hi to all:
It was not without some trepidation that I embarked on my attempt at downloading an RPM, in this case a bunch of no less than 8 for SuSE kernel 2.4.16, only because they're not available on a CD. I never tried [...] The first attempt went well until I had 28% down, when the progress window in Mozilla showed "Download complete." I thought "complete" meant
When browsing for files on an ftp site, it's better to use an ftp program than a browser. I reccomend gftp. It's easy to use and will resume partially downloaded files automatically. -- When I said "we", officer, I was referring to myself, the four young ladies, and, of course, the goat.
On Thu, 2002-02-21 at 13:49, gilson redrick wrote:
The three short RPMs (jfsprogs, modutils, reiserfs) d'l'ded without problems. The four 13 MBs were another story. Although eventually I got them all, none took fewer than three attempts. Then, it came the time for the last one, the 32 MB kernel-source. The first attempt went well until I had 28% down, when the progress
1. use the command line tool wget, it will take care of resuming your downloads. something like : wget ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/foo.rpm 2. you don't need all 4 of the kernel rpms, you only need one. The smp and psmp ones are for multiprocessor machines, the i386 will work for any generic x86 (except for 286 of course) machine and I believe that the deflt one is pentium optimized (I'm not sure though, it would be far too much work for SuSE to put a README in that directory) 3. the kernel source is also not required, unless you're going to be custom compiling your own kernel or some wierd programs 4. you most definitely should install the modutils rpm, the reiser and the jfs ones (I believe...again, no documentation!) are only needed if you are running one of those file systems...maybe try a 'rpm -q jfsprogs' to see if it's already installed, then you'll want to update it if so. 5. make sure to back up your /etc/lilo.conf, and make copies of initrd and vmlinuz (I've got a bunch in /boot like vmlinux_2.4.0, vmlinuz_2.4.4, etc) and add an entry in lilo.conf to point to the renamed ones...that way you'll have something to boot to if the Green Monkey gets you. - David A. Riggs
gilson redrick wrote:
The three short RPMs (jfsprogs, modutils, reiserfs) d'l'ded without problems. The four 13 MBs were another story. Although eventually I got them all, none took fewer than three attempts.
You didn't need to download all 4 13MBers. Depending on your system, k-deflt-2.4.16-22.i386.rpm would be the one you actually needed. with the other 3, you could have then upgraded your kernel. ;-) You don't HAVE to install the kernel sources (though it IS a good idea).
Then, it came the time for the last one, the 32 MB kernel-source.
Is this on a dial-up?
The last attempt, this morning, went well until I had already 54%, at which point it asked for another file. Sure...
Q1- is this behavior normal?
NO, though big downloads via dial-up are a royal pain. It takes so long that the likelyhood of interference, delays, etc. causing problems goes up exponentially. BTW, I don't know which version of Mozilla you are using, but with .9.8, if the server you are downloading from supports it, you can pause/resume a download. Sometimes it seems to help if the routing/connection slows or drops. You can pause, then resume which I believe reconnects (which may reroute through a more reliable route).
Q2- am I doing something wrong?
Probably not, but I did not see you. ;-) -- Joe & Sesil Morris New Tribes Mission Email Address: Joe_Morris@ntm.org Web Address: www.mydestiny.net/~joe_morris Registered Linux user 231871
participants (5)
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David A. Riggs
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gilson redrick
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Joe & Sesil Morris (NTM)
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Joshua Lee
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M. Clark