[CLUE-Tech] Probably, I'm an idiot, but...

[Jeffery Cann]

would someone explain to my the following RPM dependancy scenario:

I tried to install a mandrake lyx 1.3 package that uses Qt for its frontend.  
I downloaded this rpm from lyx.org ftp site.

When I try to install it on my Mandrake 9.0 laptop, it complains:

$ rpm -i lyx-1.3.0-1mdk9-qt.i586.rpm
error:  failed dependancies:
	qt >= 2.2.1 is needed by lyx-1.3.0-1qt

Hmm, here's what rpm tells me about qt

$ rpm -qa | grep qt
libqt3-3.0.5-7mdk
libqt2-2.3.1-29mdk
libqt3-devel-3.0.5-7.mdk

Note that this laptop was originally a Mandrake 8.2 box, so I think this is 
why the 'old' libqt2 is still there.  However, this package 2.3.1 is still >= 
2.2.1.

Next, I thought that maybe because the package is named libqt-*, rather than 
qt*, this fails the dependancy test.  So, I check my favorite Mandrake 9.0 
ftp site and there are no packages from the distribution that start with qt*.  
I also checked the 'contrib' area of the 9.0 distribution.

I have a KDE 3.0.3 working on this machine, also using Qt and KDE 3 requires 
QT 3.x.  This seems (I thought) to satisfy this dependancy for the Lyx 
package.

I think that because I originally had 8.2 and upgraded to 9.0, either rpm is 
confused or the packager of Lyx for Mandrake built it on a 'clean' 9.0 
install.  I think this because I can see both KDE 2.2.x and KDE 3.0.x 
packages when I query rpm database.

If this is the case, then I am officially 'Totally Confused' about the point 
of RPM and dependancies.  Would an RPM veteran please explain it to me?  Is 
this a case of poor package authorship?  Related to the fact that my system 
is an 'upgrade' rather than a 'fresh' 9.0 install?  Some other cosmic 
explanation?

BTW - I 'fixed' the problem by 1)  uninstall lyx-1.2.1 (came with 9.0) and 
then 2) rpm --install --nodeps lyx-1.3.x  The program runs fine.

Thanks
Jeff


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