You type that into your terminal:
man apt
It will bring up the manpage for apt. From there, you will see (since I found a man page for it) that you use apt-get to install things. So then you will read the manpage for apt-get:
man apt-get
Which will tell you to type something like this:
apt-get install gcc
To install GCC.

So, if you just want a command, and don't wanna read anything, try this:

apt-get install gcc

Cool

No, but it is very likely it is. I'm not sure which CD GCC is on, but it is definitely included in the redhat download iso's packages because it's necessary for kernel compiles and VERY basic compiling of other packages. So no, it might not be on the first, but it is surely on one of them.

You can check your packages list to find which one.

Cool

it gave me error:cannot get excclusive lock on /var/lib/rpm/package
error:cannot open packages database in E: could not open RPM database in command apt-get install gcc

Are you root? You will need to be root when you do this...

And just for sanities sake, run this first (as root):
rpm --rebuilddb
updatedb

And then:
apt-get install gcc

Cool

on disk 2 i found some files that say gcc in front of it but the command ls | grep gcc noughting poped up

You do ls in the directory where the RPM's are listed, or you can give it directory parameters:
ls /mnt/cdrom/Redhat/RPMS | grep gcc

Cool

i got this error:db4 error(16) from dbenv->removeevice or resource busy on this command rpm --rebuilddb
but on this command alone apt-get install gcc (in as root ) i got this
package gss has no available version,but exists in the database. this typically means that the package was mentioned in a dependency and never uploaded, has been obsoleted or is not avaiable with the contents of the sources.list
E: package gcc has no installation candidate

on this command ls/mnt/cdrom/redhat/rpms | grep gcc i got 9 rpm files there do i install them all

Yes, but those too will have dependency problems. Type:
man apt
And in addition:
man apt-cdrom
man apt.conf
For more info setting apt up to work with your CDROM drive.

Anyway, if you wanna hand install those 9 rpms and their dependencies, yes, do that with:
rpm -ivh gcc.rpm g++.rpm ...
Where gcc.rpm g++.rpm and ... are all just representations of ALL of the files you need to install. What I mean is you will want/need to place them all on a single line to satisify the redundant dependencies (such as gcc needs g++ but g++ needs gcc ).

Good Luck.

apt-get is giving that error list probably means you need to tweak your apt.conf file in /etc. Once you get that file setup correctly (by defining a mirror to get packages from probably) then the rest is history (likely).

Cool

man its so confusing what should i do next? i have noidea what you just say

hey make menuconfig works now

libncurses5-devel

GCC will still be required to compile the kernel after you are done configuring it, but at least you can get started on that since reading all those help files will take a good while.

Cool

That's ok, I'll break it down a bit.

Man pages are things that describe how to use applications. With apt there are many man pages for different parts of it. One of the man pages in one for apt.conf which resides in /etc/apt.conf The file is a text file that will be used by apt when using it to install packages. You can edit this file to suit your needs, but to do so, you will need to learn what you can and can't put in that file. For example, if you wanted to tell it to your floppy drive to get files, you wouldn't simply edit the file and at any given place type:
use my floppy drive
Instead you'd need to consult the man page, which is done by typing in 'man' followed by the application or configuration file you are wanting to read a man (manual) for, so for this it would be:
man apt.conf
And it should describe some of the information in there for you. At the bottom of that file it will have "See also" man pages for other configurations you can look at with regards to (WRT is the acronym for that you may see from time to time) apt. So by looking at:
man apt
You will see "See also" and things like apt-get apt-cdrom What these mean is if you type:
man apt-cdrom
A new manual page (man page) will pop up with more information.

It's a great tool, but the only draw back is that sometimes man pages assume you know how to use the application, hence my comment on the 'lawyer gibberish' but that's what we are all here for. We will help you through those parts that you don't quite understand. Other places to look for info are:
google.com/linux
And you should also look at the tutorial (linux 101) over at www.linux.org

The man pages are your friend, even though sometimes they can seem very frustrating!



Cool

man wtf what am i suppose to do i dont know wut to do!!! ahahah this is so confusing!

i got the make menuconfig page do still read the man pages?
linux kernel 2.4.21 configuration menu*