in reply to test modules fail install

I'd first try to install RPM::Specfile on that box, and subsequently use cpanflute2 (included in that package) to build RPMS from CPAN Archives. cpanflute2 has its issues too (mostly due to the simplistic perl dependency finder /usr/lib/rpm/perl.req which lists optional modules as requirements also), but it is definitively the right thing to do.

I guess that there's also a repository of RPMS for RH9 ... yup, Dag Wieers has them. Here you go:

perl-Net-SSLeay-1.23-0.dag.rh90.i386.rpm

and he also has RPM::Specfile.

Run rpm -qlp --requires on the downloaded package, and get the rest of the dependecies too. After installing those RH9 rpms, you can get the source rpms, edit the spec files and update the tar.gz packages with newer stuff from CPAN, cpanflute them to RPMS and gradually upgrade until all deps are satisfied. Which may or may not work...

Good luck! ;-)

--shmem 

_($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo.  G°\        /
                              /\_¯/(q    /
----------------------------  \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."·
");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom