How to tell which RPM you need?

Hi

Just wondering if someone could give some guidance as to what I can do to find out which RPM i need for a given system.

update: When trying to use YUM, was getting this error message

Gathering header information file(s) from server(s)
Server: Atomic Rocket Turtle - 9 - Atomic PSA-Compatible RPMS
retrygrab() failed for:
  http://www.atomicrocketturtle.com/atomic/art/9/headers/header.info
  Executing failover method
failover: out of servers to try
Error getting file www.atomicrocketturtle.com/atomic/art/9/headers/header.info
[Errno 4] IOError: HTTP Error 404: Not Found

which is what led me to want to try via RPM.

At the end of the day, i think the box needs an upgrade, and will just get it bumped up to centos5 though I am still insterested to know what you can run to find out the info you would need to install via an rpm.

thanks

note: I had to remove one http from the error message, since spam protection came up: we're sorry, but as a spam prevention mechanism, new users can only post a maximum of one hyperlink. Earn 10 reputation to post more hyperlinks.

From serverfault meeech

• If at all possible, you should always use your distro's package management system to install packages. If I were to guess, you're running Fedora or CentOS. If that's the case, you'll be using the yum package manager. Installing a package using yum looks something like this:

  $ sudo yum install <package_name>
  

  To get a list of available packages, you can run this command:

  $ sudo yum list
  

  And likewise to search:

  $ sudo yum search <keyword>
  

  If you really do need to install a standalone RPM, which version you install will depend on several factors, including but not limited to:

  • kernel version
  • operating system version
  • CPU architecture
  • shared library versions
  • etc. etc.

  If you give us more info, you'll get a clearer answer. The above is the best I can do with the given information.

  ErikA : meech, please edit your question and paste in that error message, using the "code" tags. It'll get formatted correctly that way.

  meeech : Hi ErikA Thanks. adding to the frustration, i can't find the info on how to format my comment. i tried [code] and and am having no luck. any link to formatting you can provide? now i feel even dumber.

  ErikA : Paste in the code, select it, then either hit Ctrl-K or click the button with the binary code on it at the top of the edit window.

  meeech : yeah, realized my mistake. I was trying to use code tag in comment. I think i've made a mess of this. maybe a more experienced user can tell me if I should just remove the question entirely. end of day, moral of the story will be upgrade the server :/

  ErikA : Well, it looks like yum can't contact the server it's trying to get the repo headers from. Is this box able to successfully access internet resources using other methods? Ping/wget/etc.?

  meeech : yeah. more discovery, found out is rh9, so it is old, so i will be doing a upgrade. def has net access. Thanks for the help erik

  ErikA : No problem. Good luck!
  From ErikA