Some tips for easy Mandrake software management via URPMI:
1. Put the 3/4/5 (depending on the Mandrake version you are using, plain, Official or Powerpack) CD ISO's in a folder of your HD, and mount them somwewhere, eg:
mount -o loop -t iso9660 Mandrakelinux10.0-"n".iso /mnt/cd"x", as root ("n" is a variable, depending on your ISO's name, as well as "x", can be anything you like). Of course you can mount the ISO's permanently at startup putting an analogous script at etc/init.d, or you can use Webmin to do the same thing (system/disk and network filesystems module). That way you can install software without having to swap CD's on your drives, just put /mnt/cd"x" as URPMI repository (mcc as root, software management/media manager).
2. Put Urpmi repositories for main, updates, contrib and Penguin Liberation Front (non-GPL stuff). Simply use
Easy urpmi and pick up the fastest links for you.
3. Some more nice sites with URPMI repositories:
- Drakian RPM's (
www.drakian.org). They are Debian packages, converted to Mandrake RPM's. Many of them won't work properly, so use with care or don't use at all!
Type at a root console
urpmi.addmedia drakian
http://www.drakian.org/RPMS/ with synthesis.hdlist.cz
(by the way if you don't like typing some Mandrake consoles, eg KDE's konsole can cut and paste...). If you decide using Drakian, then add that one too:
urpmi.addmedia
http://www.nexedi.org/static/RPMS/ with synthesis.hdlist.cz
- Thac's RPM's (
http://rpm.nyvalls.se/), mainly sound and multimedia oriented
urpmi.addmedia thacs.rpms
http://rpm.nyvalls.se/10.0/RPMS with hdlist.cz
(as above)
- Norlug's (aka Chip Guccio) RPM's,
http://norlug.org/~chipster/ (mixed stuff)
urpmi.addmedia NORLUG-10.0
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/n...ake-10.0/RPMS/ with hdlist.cz
- Eslrahc repository, holding good XFCE RPM's (the official Mandrake ones stink!), gstreamer stuff etc.
urpmi.addmedia eslrahc
http://www.eslrahc.com/10.0/ with hdlist.cz
There are also some more repositories for MDK RPM's, but they are commercial, so don't bother... MDK 10 is a great OS and you don't have to pay a single penny to get it running. Actually using all the above software sources, installation and uninstallation via URPMI is almost as good as with apt-get, and surely more secure than Windows installers (and equally easy, if not easier...).
Big_gie: If you can REALLY cope with Gentoo, then look no further... but it is a huge pain in the... to compile everything from (optimized) sourcecode- for a medium oomph computer you will need 2-3 days to compile just KDE!