Bug 511101

Summary:	YaST should present an option to install dependencies when installing an rpm file
Product:	[openSUSE] openSUSE 11.1	Reporter:	Forgotten User EGKOvZW2-J <forgotten_EGKOvZW2-J>
Component:	YaST2	Assignee:	Ladislav Slezák <lslezak>
Status:	RESOLVED DUPLICATE	QA Contact:	Jiri Srain <jsrain>
Severity:	Enhancement
Priority:	P5 - None
Version:	Final
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	PC
OS:	openSUSE 11.1
Whiteboard:
Found By:	---	Services Priority:
Business Priority:		Blocker:	---
Marketing QA Status:	---	IT Deployment:	---

Description Forgotten User EGKOvZW2-J 2009-06-08 21:21:30 UTC

User-Agent:       Opera/9.64 (X11; Linux x86_64; U; en) Presto/2.1.1

For example, download some rpm which has non-installed dependencies. Skype is a good example of this if you're on x86_64, because it is only available in i586 version and has dependencies which may not be installed by default.
Click the rpm file in Dolphin (or any other file manager).
A dialog from YaST shows up, saying:

The package ... could not be installed.
Subprocess failed.
Some errors from rpm about some .so files being needed by this package, etc...

The problem is, the user is left completely helpless at this point. At best, he would have to memorize or write down all the dependencies, close the dialog, open YaST software management, type the dependencies one by one (not forgeting to check the "Provides" checkbox during search), and then repeat the installation procedure.

The proper thing to do would be to show a dialog like this:
"Installing package <something> will also install these packages: <the list>.
Do you want to continue installation?".

Or, if you want to avoid loading the repositories during rpm file installation, the dialog may look like this:
"The package <something> requires these additional components to be installed: <the list>.
Do you want to install these components? You may need an installation CD/DVD or a network connection for this.".


Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Martin Vidner 2009-07-03 06:04:33 UTC

Anything that looks like YaST can be screened by the YaST team.

Comment 3 Jan Kupec 2009-07-03 09:21:01 UTC

(In reply to comment #0)
> The problem is, the user is left completely helpless at this point. At best, he
> would have to memorize or write down all the dependencies, close the dialog,
> open YaST software management, type the dependencies one by one (not forgeting
> to check the "Provides" checkbox during search), and then repeat the
> installation procedure.

There is a better workaround. Open a command line terminal and do
$ zypper install the/path/to/the.rpm

> The proper thing to do would be to show a dialog like this:
> "Installing package <something> will also install these packages: <the list>.
> Do you want to continue installation?".

Yes, that would be nice.

Comment 4 Forgotten User EGKOvZW2-J 2009-07-03 09:35:05 UTC

(In reply to comment #3)
> There is a better workaround. Open a command line terminal and do
> $ zypper install the/path/to/the.rpm

Yes, but there are two huge problems there.
1. The user is given NO feedback about how he could handle the situation. A casual openSUSE user wouldn't know that zypper gained that ability in that particular release (maybe it always had it, I don't know, but I haven't seen any mention of it).
2. Don't expect an average user to suddenly open a terminal and figure out how to find the downloaded rpm file there and install it with a program he/she has never heared of.

Comment 5 Jan Kupec 2009-07-03 10:40:20 UTC

c#4: of course - that's why i agree with your proposal in the very same comment

Comment 6 Ladislav Slezák 2009-07-08 16:22:34 UTC

This is a duplicate of bug #459268.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 459268 ***