On Wed, 3 Apr 2002, Colin Kilbane wrote:

> Ok I am installing vmware on a machine running RH 7.2. 

what version of vmware?

> I have secured the
> machine with bastille linux, so I can no longer log in as root at the
> login prompt, I must log in as a user first.

good idea, but when you su to root use su -, this simulates a login 
process and read roots' .bashrc

>  Vmware needs gcc to install
> and I have tried to install the rpms as root 

i find it very hard to believe that gcc was not installed by default

> but they do not install when
> i use the rpm -i command with the rpm name.  The only error was that it
> needed a directory made, I made that and the error went away but it still
> was not installed. Whereis just reports "gcc:" and which can not find it
> in the path. What could be the problem here?  Is it just a problem with
> the path?

try this:
rpm -qa gcc    or rpm -qa | grep gcc

if the above does not show gcc installed try rebuilding the rpmdb before 
installing: rpm --rebuilddb

 -munir