Installation guide

136 Chapter 14. Frequently Asked Questions

# .bashrc

# User specific aliases and functions

# Source global definitions

if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then

. /etc/bashrc

Under the line # User specific aliases and functions type:

alias ls="ls -al --color"

Make sure to write your changes to the ﬁle and save them. To make the change work immediately, run

the source command to the .bashrc ﬁle with the following command:

source .bashrc

14.3. Error Messages During Installation of RPMs

How do I install an RPM from a CD or the Internet? I keep getting an error message when I use

Gnome-RPM.

If you are getting an error message similar to failed to open /var/lib/rpm/packages.rpm,

it is because you do not have proper permission to install RPM ﬁles.

When you install software, you are often required to make system-wide changes which only root can

make, such as creating new directories outside of your user home directory or making changes to

your system conﬁguration. If you are using your normal user account, you will not have permission

to make such changes by default.

You need to be the root user in order to install RPM ﬁles. At a shell or GUI terminal prompt, switch

to root user by running the following:

You should then be able to install the RPM ﬁle without further errors. For more information about

using RPM and Gnome-RPM, refer to the Ofﬁcial Red Hat Linux Customization Guide on the Red

Hat Linux Documentation CD or online at http://www.redhat.com/docs/.

14.4. Starting Applications

I installed an application I downloaded from the Internet, and everything seemed to go ﬁne, but I still

get "command not found" when I type its name. I think I have the right name, so why will it not it

start?

If you are trying to start an application from the shell prompt and it is not working, try adding ./

before the name of the application’s executable.

For example, imagine that you have downloaded the setiathome client application and want to try

it out. You follow the directions for installing the software. Now, you change to the directory in which

you know the executable can be found (as shown below).

cd setiathome

To start the application now, precede the executable with a ./ as shown below:

./setiathome