nmap 5.21 and Python problems

Question

What does this mean and how can I fix it?

root@bt:~# rpm -vhU http://nmap.org/dist/nmap-5.21-1.i386.rpm
Retrieving http://nmap.org/dist/nmap-5.21-1.i386.rpm
error: Failed dependencies:
    /usr/bin/python is needed by nmap-5.21-1.i386
    python >= 2.4 is needed by nmap-5.21-1.i386
root@bt:~# python -V
Python 2.5.2
root@bt:~# which python
/usr/bin/python
root@bt:~#

Answer 1

I had almost the same, just without /usr/bin/python is needed by nmap-5.21-1.i386. I had an older version of Perl.

I solved it by:

rpm -ivh --nodeps ./nmap-5.21-1.i386.rpm

nmap works correctly.

Answer 2

I would almost guarantee you have more than one python installed on BT. You can use whereis to confirm.

 root@bt:~# whereis python
 python: /usr/bin/python2.5 /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python2.5-config /usr/bin/python2.4 /etc/python2.5 /etc/python /etc/python2.4 /usr/lib/python2.5 /usr/lib/python2.4 /usr/local/lib/python2.5 /usr/local/lib/python2.4 /usr/include/python2.5 /usr/include/python2.5_d /usr/include/python2.4 /usr/include/python2.4_d /usr/share/python /usr/share/man/man1/python.1.gz

It could be pointing to another version also in /usr/bin/

Best bet: to test, you could delete/move older versions of python from the directory. Or you can use this video to run an Update Everything script. That will cover your ground.