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(Linux)

Install and verifying Linux packages

We can query a Linux system to verify that a package is installed. We can also install a missing package from an operating system CD.

Install the Linux operating system before using this procedure.

Use the following procedure to install and verify prerequisite libraries (packages) that WebSphere Application Server products require on Linux systems.

Assume that your Linux operating system requires the compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3 package and that there are two versions of the package. One version is for 32-bit platforms and the other is for 64-bit platforms. This procedure shows how to query the operating system to see if the packages are installed, find the missing packages on the operating system disk, and install the packages.

This example uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on a PowerPC 64-bit hardware platform. The example assumes that RHEL requires both the 32-bit version and the 64-bit version of the compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3 package.


Tasks

  1. Query the operating system to determine if the packages are already installed. 
    rpm -qa | grep compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-

    In this example, the operating system did not find any matching packages so a blank line is displayed.

    We can also search without the grep argument to see an explicit message about the file:

    rpm -q compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-

    The operating system returns the following message:

    package compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3- is not installed

  2. Find all related packages on the operating system media to get the fully qualified locations.

    This example assumes that the operating system media is a CD mounted at mount_directory.

    find mount_directory -name compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-*

    In this example, the operating system finds two matching package names. One package is the 32-bit version, and the other is the 64-bit version.

    mount_directory/Server/compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3.ppc.rpm 
mount_directory/Server/compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3.ppc64.rpm

  3. Install the first missing package: 
    rpm -ivh mount_directory/Server/compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3.ppc.rpm

  4. Install the second missing package: 
    rpm -ivh mount_directory/Server/compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3.ppc64.rpm

  5. Optional: Alternative method to find and install packages in one command: To find packages and to install all packages that are found.

    Find the packages as described in the earlier step to verify that the following command installs only the packages that we intend to install. 

    find mount_directory -name compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-* | xargs rpm -ivh

    This single command installs both packages.

  6. Optional: Alternative command to update existing packages: To find and install missing packages or to find and update existing packages: 
    find /mount_directory -name compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-* | xargs rpm -Uvh

    This single command installs a package when the package is not installed. This command updates a package to a newer version when the package is installed.


What to do next

Required packages vary by operating system. See Prepare Linux systems for installation for a list of required packages for each Linux operating system.

  • Prepare Linux systems for installation