Updating Software with Ximian Red Carpet

Red Carpet is a software management tool that allows you to perform the following tasks:

• Update: Check for security updates or improvements to your currently installed software.
• Install: Find and install additional software.
• Remove: Delete unused software without damaging the functionality of the system as a whole.

Red Carpet organizes software into channels, each of which contains related software packages. For example, the channel "Ximian Connector" contains the Ximian Connector for Microsoft Exchange and its associated support packages, and the channel "Red Hat 8.0" contains all of Red Hat* Linux 8.0.

Figure 6
Red Carpet Software Management Tool

To install software or be notified of updates to it, you must first subscribe to its channel. If you are not subscribed to a channel, Red Carpet will assume that you are not interested in installing or updating its contents. Channel subscriptions let you focus on the software you want and ignore the software you don't.

To start Red Carpet, select System > Update Software. You will need your system's root password to change anything, but you can view your system and the available software as a regular user.

If you did not do so during the install process, you should activate your Red Carpet Express account now. Select File > Activate and enter your e-mail address and activation key.

The first time you run Red Carpet, you are not subscribed to any channels, so it will not display any updates. To adjust your channel subscriptions, click the Channels button in the toolbar at the top of the window. This will open a new window where you can select from a variety of channels.

Click the check box to the left of a channel to subscribe to a channel. When you are done, click OK. If updates are available in any of the channels you have subscribed to, they will be displayed in the main window now.

To perform an update, select a package by clicking it and then clicking the Mark for Installation button. When you have selected all the software you want to update, click the Run Now button.

Red Carpet will then make sure that the update is possible and alert you if it must install or remove other software in order to perform the update. Confirm the transaction by clicking the Continue button, or cancel it by clicking Cancel.

Check the Red Carpet manual, under the Help menu in the application window, for information about software conflicts and dependencies, installation, removal, advanced searching, and premium services.