problem with rar files

[JJSH]

I'm having a problem with multi part rar archives I've downloaded from usenet. They par ok, but when I try and open them, I get an error message, saying that they are corrupt. I can open and extract the exact same files using 7zip on my Windows XP laptop, which is what I would expect with the fact that they parity checked OK.

Has anyone got any ideas why this might be happening?

[jankushka]

Re: problem with rar files

i don't know what "multi part rar archives" are.
you might want to compare your installation with mine.
hopefully you are on a 32bit intel platform.

$ dpkg-query -W -f='${Package}\n${Version}\n' unrar
unrar
1:3.8.5-1

$ dpkg-query -L unrar
/.                 
/usr                
/usr/bin              
/usr/bin/unrar-nonfree       
/usr/share             
/usr/share/doc           
/usr/share/doc/unrar        
/usr/share/doc/unrar/copyright   
/usr/share/doc/unrar/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/man             
/usr/share/man/man1           
/usr/share/man/man1/unrar-nonfree.1.gz

$ which unrar                                
/usr/bin/unrar

$ ls -l /usr/bin/unrar
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2009-03-22 02:10 /usr/bin/unrar -> /etc/alternatives/unrar

$ ls -l /etc/alternatives/unrar
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 2009-03-22 02:10 /etc/alternatives/unrar -> /usr/bin/unrar-nonfree

$ ls -l /usr/bin/unrar-nonfree
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 187172 2008-12-15 17:12 /usr/bin/unrar-nonfree

$ sum -r /usr/bin/unrar-nonfree
12109  183

hth

[musta ruhtinas]

Re: problem with rar files

What program do you use to open them?
I had enough issues with Ark so I opted for a gnome app (file-roller) which seems to handle them much better.
The safest bet, however, would be to install unrar from the repos ( command-line, I'm afraid), and test the archive integrity / extract it from terminal.

@jankushka: a multipart rar is an archive split into smaller parts (volumes) - usenet ones are split into ~14MB parts, IIRC; you need all of them in order to decompress the content.

[blobfish]

Re: problem with rar files

as jankushka showed, you need the unrar-nonfree which is in the nonfree repository. The free version will fail frequently and I am guessing this is what you are using. I have found it best just to use the terminal version. I made the rar association launch:

nice -n 15 unrar e

and made a directory where all extractions take place and put that into the work path. My terminals windows launch automatically to a workspace. Now I can be in konqueror and launch multiple rars with little hassle or clutter. It is not uncommon for me to be extracting 4 or 5 things at once. Because of the "nice" my computer stays responsive. This is the kind of stuff that takes a while to appreciate, but is so much better than windows!

[jankushka]

Re: problem with rar files

@jankushka: a multipart rar is an archive split into smaller parts (volumes) - usenet ones are split into ~14MB parts, IIRC; you need all of them in order to decompress the content.

appreciated.
thanks.

[JJSH]

Re: problem with rar files

Thanks for the replies guys ~ really appreciated. Unfortunately, I have decided to switch back to Ubuntu ~ I was just experiencing too many issues with Kubuntu to make it a viable OS. Keep in mind that I switched from Ubuntu 9.xx to Kubuntu 9.xx on the exact same hardware, and was left with a system that froze frequently, then worked, then froze, had less functionality (as some things refused to work) etc etc.

It doesn't integrate with my (extremely simple) home network properly (something I thought I had solved, but the problem keeps coming back), the screen locks up constantly, some of the programs that I have installed from the repository simply fail to work (the usual result is that you launch an application and you get a 'dead' item on the taskbar and no working app). The whole thing has been one disaster after another.

I have three Linux boxes here ~ one is running DSL, and is basically a LAMPP box for my local network, and I expect to have to sort everything out manually for that. The other is a slightly older box running VectorLinux, again, which I expect a certain amount of manual configuration if I want to do anything unusual. I also have a couple of debian machines in a datacenter that I rent. The point I am trying to make is that I'm not a Linux expert by any means, but I'm not some kind of clueless newb.

This machine that I installed Kubuntu on is my main, day to day, desktop box. It was running Ubuntu happily for ages (from version 7.xx IIRC). I wanted to try Kubuntu as I like to idea of KDE4, and a change in work commitments should mean that I no longer have to run Win XP on my laptop. The idea was to unify the laptop and my main desktop with a 'it just works' Linux distro, and dump MS altogether, and leave the other two boxes for messing around on. Sadly, the reality of Kubuntu was, for me at least, worse than any MS operating system I have used before (never having used Millenium or Vista, obviously!).

The positives? It's pretty, and I like the feel that everything is integrated slightly better tha Ubuntu. Unfortunately, on my hardware, it runs like a three legged dog in treacle, then crashes (ok, not the whole box, usually just Dolphin, halfway through a 3gb file transfer. Grrrr).

I'll keep an eye on Kubuntu. The basics are all there and extremely promising, but it has the feel of a beta release that has been rushed out too quickly.

Thanks again for the help. All the best.