Raspberry Pi cannot install Nmap, failed dependencies

Question

I'm trying to get nmap for Raspberry Pi, and running into errors. I'm following the instructions here: http://nmap.org/book/inst-linux.html#inst-debian

I have alien installed. Next command was

rpm -vhU https://nmap.org/dist/nmap-6.49BETA2-1.i386.rpm

But I get this error:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ rpm -vhU https://nmap.org/dist/nmap-6.49BETA2-1.i386.rpm
    rpm: RPM should not be used directly install RPM packages, use Alien instead!
    rpm: However assuming you know what you are doing...
    Retrieving https://nmap.org/dist/nmap-6.49BETA2-1.i386.rpm
    error: Failed dependencies:
        python >= 2.4 is needed by nmap-2:6.49BETA2-1.i386

But my version of Python is:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ python --version
    Python 2.7.3

What's going on here?

Answer 1

Just to explain the problem:

You have been using the wrong download:

nmap-6.49BETA2-1.i386.rpm
                      ^^^ package format for RedHat not for Debian
                 ^^^^ wrong architecture, the Rasberry pi is arm6 or arm7l

The package wasn't the right one but there is also the problem of dependencies. The RPM installer does not read the list of debian's installed packages properly. It is possible to ignore the dependencies by command line arguments, but in general it is better to

1. use a debian package

2. or compile from source if you need a version where there is no package for.