The majority of the tools that you will be installing are already compiled and available online. You just have to configure your software management tool (i.e., your package manager) to access the online files. Mandriva's package manager is called "urpmi" and it's similar to Redhat's yum or Debian's apt-get. It is able to access online respositories of RPM's and can automatically load dependencies for any package that you're trying to install.
One of the more popular online RPM repositories for Mandriva is called the Penguin Liberation Front. The repository is mirrored at a number of sites and the PLF maintains a site called EasyUrpmi to help you access those sites. To do this:
1) Point a browser at http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/
2) The options for Step #1 on the EasyUrpmi site should be the detected for your system. If you know they're wrong change them. If you don't know, leave them as is.
3) Click on "proceed to Step 2". This should present you with an option to select mirror sites.
4) Choose mirrors that are relative close to you. For the Penguin Liberation Front, they will mostly be overseas (remember Mandriva is a French distribution of Linux).
5) Choose the types of packages that you expect to be installing/upgrading and click on "proceed to Step 3"
6) Highlight the urpmi.addmedia lines in the resulting box, right click the mouse and select "Copy".
7) Open a terminal window, run "su - root" (input the password at the prompt) and run "vi urpmi.script"
8) Hit "i" to go to "Insert Mode"
9) Insert your copied text via Shift-Insert
10) Save and exit vi by hitting the escape key, then the ":" key, then the "w" key, then the "q" key, then the "Enter" key.
11) Still as root, run "urpmi.removemedia -a" in the terminal window to remove the systems dependency on the install CDs or DVD set(s).
12) Still as root, run "sh urpmi.script" in the terminal window to run the file you create in steps 7 through 10. This downloads the file lists from the repositories that you selected in step 4 above. This process takes a few minutes.
13) At this point, you are ready to install files. This can be done via the text command "urpmi" (followed by the name of the applicatoin you want to install) or via the graphical menu selection (under "Applications") of "Add/Remove Software".
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