Kirk Hogenson wrote: >
<snip> > > Anyway, let me describe what Eric was talking about. The file > /var/lib/dpkg/Contents-i386.gz contains information about which > package contains what. If you want to find the HOWTO's, for > example, try something like: > > zgrep HOWTO /var/lib/dpkg/Contents-i386.gz | less > > This searches through the Contents file and prints all of the lines > that contain the word HOWTO. > > As another example: suppose you are compiling something and you get > the error: "sgml2html: command not found". This happened to me > last night. I tried: > > zgrep sgml2html /var/lib/dpkg/Contents-i386.gz | less > > and it printed: > > usr/bin/sgml2html text/sgml-tools > usr/man/man1/sgml2html.1.gz text/sgml-tools > > So, I knew that I need to install the package "sgml-tools", which > is in the "text" section. > > I hope this helps, and good luck getting your sound card working. > And please ask here if you run into problems. You are immune to > "What a dumb question" attacks if you've read the Howto. :) > > Kirk I'm not part of this thread, but I just wanted to say that Kirk's explanation is EXCELLENT! It's got non-technospeak explanations; it's got a couple of simple real-world examples; it's just a great document. This is what a lot of newbies want (and even some of us semi-newbies).
