Installing New Packages

To install new packages, choose Install from the toolbar. In the Install window, your view will depend upon what you have selected under Filter.

Filter can be used to narrow your choices for viewing packages. Available filters include the following:

Figure 26-3. The Install Window

Click on the Add button. By default, if your CD-ROM is mounted with a Red Hat Linux CD-ROM, Gnome-RPM will search in /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS for new packages. (You can change the default path in the Install Window tab of the Operations => Preferences dialog. See the section called Configuration for more information.)

If no packages are available in the default path, you will see an Add Packages window. You can select the location of your new package using the standard file dialog window.

If you click on a package, you'll see a brief description of the package in the Package Info panel of the Install window. To perform an installation or a query on the package, select the check box next to the package, then click on the Install button. You can also query a selected package. On the Package Info window, you can also perform the installation

To choose an item, double-click on it with your left mouse button, or click on the Add button. The selected package(s) will be added to the Install window.

In addition to installing the packages from within the Install window, you can install a package after performing a query on the selected package. Click on Query, which will open the Package Info window. Here, you can find a variety of details about the package you've selected to install, including the origination of the package, the date it was built, its size and more.

If the package already exists on your system and you're querying a newer version, the Package Info window provides an Upgrade button, which will upgrade the package to the newer version.

You can also drag and drop packages from GNOME File Manager. Within the File Manager, left-click on the selected package. While still holding down the mouse button, drag the file to the Install window and place it within the Name panel.

When dragging files to the Install window from the File Manager, you'll notice that the file is displayed as an icon while it's being dragged toward Gnome-RPM. Once inside the Name panel, you'll see that the package is checked for installation by default, and its information appears in the Package Info panel to the right.

To install the package, select the Install button. You'll see a progress indicator as your package is being installed.