ppm trouble:'no suitable installation target'

NetWallah has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I'm hoping this re-post from an older thread with a more apt 'subject' will get a response. crazyinsomniac suggested a corrupt ppm.xml in this response, but the command to fix it did not work :

G:\Perl\site\lib>ppm genconfig > ppm.xml
Unknown or ambiguous command 'genconfig'; type 'help' for commands.
[download]

The ppm.xml file did not exist(still doesn't), so I tried to create it in place. Anyway, there is no "genconfig" command documented in the help.
Searching Activestate's bug list revealed nothing.
In case it helps - here are some details of my ppm:

G:\Perl\site\lib>ppm
PPM - Programmer's Package Manager version 3.1.
Copyright (c) 2001 ActiveState SRL. All Rights Reserved.

Entering interactive shell. Using Term::ReadLine::Stub as readline lib
+rary.

Type 'help' to get started.

ppm:AvtivePerl5> targ desc
Describing target 1 (AvtivePerl58):
        Path: G:\Perl\site\lib\ppm-conf\ppminst.bat
        Port: 14533
        Type: Local
ARCHITECTURE: MSWin32-x86-multi-thread-5.8
         CPU: x86
    LANGUAGE: Perl
     OSVALUE: MSWin32
   OSVERSION: 4,0,0,0
    PERLCORE: 5.8.0
 TARGET_TYPE: perl
     VERSION: 3.05
 Rebuildhtml:
        Root: G:\Perl\
     Tempdir:
[download]

Here is the error that I get, no matter what I try to install

ppm:AvtivePerl5> install dbi
Error: no suitable installation target found for package dbi.
[download]

I get the same error no matter what I try to install.

Comment on ppm trouble:'no suitable installation target' Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: ppm trouble:'no suitable installation target' by DigitalKitty (Parson) on Jul 02, 2003 at 16:46 UTC
Hi NetWallah. Try setting an respository: Synopsis rep Displays all repositories rep add [name] <location> Adds a new repository; makes it active rep delete <name or num> Deletes specified repository rep describe <name or num> Displays information about the specified repository rep rename <name or num> <name> Renames the specified repository to the given name rep on <name> Activates the specified repository rep off <name or num> Removes the repository from the active l +ist rep up <name or num> Moves the specified repository up one rep down <name or num> Moves the specified repository down one [download] If that doesn't work, I'll try to think of something else. Hope this helps, -Katie.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: ppm trouble:'no suitable installation target' by NetWallah (Canon) on Jul 02, 2003 at 21:06 UTC
Yes !! Success !! Thank you jsprat, Mr. Muskrat, iburrell, and DigitalKitty for pointing the way. My repository had these settings: ppm:AvtivePerl5> rep desc Describing Active Repository 1: Name: ActiveState PPM2 Repository Location: http://ppm.ActiveState.com/cgibin/PPM/ppmserver.pl?urn:/PPMS +erver Type: PPMServer 2.0 ppm:AvtivePerl5> rep Repositories: [1] ActiveState PPM2 Repository [2] ActiveState Package Repository [3] Jenda ppm:AvtivePerl5> rep desc 2 Describing Active Repository 2: Name: ActiveState Package Repository Location: http://ppm-ia.ActiveState.com/PPM/ppmserver.plex?urn:/PPM/Se +rver/SQL Type: PPMServer 3.0 ppm:AvtivePerl5> rep desc 3 Describing Active Repository 3: Name: Jenda Location: http://Jenda.Krynicky.cz/perl Type: Webpage [download] After I added `Describing Active Repository 1: Name: ActivePerl8 Location: http://ppm.ActiveState.com/PPM/ppmserver-5.8-windows.plex?ur +n:/PPM/Server/SQL Type: PPMServer 3.0` [download] as suggested by jsprat, and made it the primary, ppm works again !! The Monestary rules!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: ppm trouble:'no suitable installation target' by Mr. Muskrat (Canon) on Jul 02, 2003 at 17:17 UTC
This error has nothing to do with ppm not being able to find a location in which to install the module but rather that the repositories that you are querying with ppm do not have a version of the module for your particular build of ActivePerl.	[reply]
Re: ppm trouble:'no suitable installation target' by NetWallah (Canon) on Jul 02, 2003 at 16:49 UTC
Digitalkitty .. The Repository is not the problem. It finds the modules just fine. It is having trouble finding where to install them! LD2 - The thread you linked to addresses a diffetent issue - one I have dealt with in this thread. Thank you both for trying.	[reply]
Re: Re: ppm trouble:'no suitable installation target' by jsprat (Curate) on Jul 02, 2003 at 17:20 UTC
Actually, the Repository _may_ be the problem. Does the repository point to a valid 5.8 location, or does it point to a 5.6 repository? Does the repository have a DBI package for 5.8? Type `rep` then `rep desc` at a ppm prompt. Mine looks like this: `ppm> rep desc 2 Describing Active Repository 2: Name: ActiveState Package Repository Location: http://ppm.ActiveState.com/PPM/ppmserver-5.8-windows.plex?urn:/PPM/Ser +ver/SQL Type: PPMServer 3.0` [download] If it does point to a 5.6 repository, see DigitalKitty's post above to point it to a valid 5.8 repository. BTW, the target looks fine, except for the extra 'v' in ActivePerl (which won't make any difference).	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Re: ppm trouble:'no suitable installation target' by iburrell (Chaplain) on Jul 02, 2003 at 19:47 UTC
That error comes when it finds the module but there is no install for the architecture of ActivePerl you are running. This mainly happens with binary modules which have been compiled for Unix platforms but not for Windows. There is a bug in PPM that stops it searching other repositories for an acceptable version of the module that it could install. For this reason, ActiveState split the repositories on architecture for 5.8. If you are getting this error, it strongly suggests you are using a 5.6 repository. Also, check which targets PPM knows about with the "targets" command. If it says 5.6, then that is your problem.	[reply]
Re: ppm trouble:'no suitable installation target' by LD2 (Curate) on Jul 02, 2003 at 16:49 UTC
I'm not sure if this will help.. but here's a thread here that may give you some ideas here	[reply]


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