I downloaded the gaim package.
switched to the directory did the ./ configure
and the make
and make install
and now i am wondering how do i get the program to start?

see if you can run the 'gaim' command at console.

Not sure how to make a 'shortcut' icon on the desktop tho... which is needed unless you want a console window open ugh.

I know in KDE you can do it by rick clicking on desktop and selecting NEW>Link to Application then type "gaim" at "run command" text box but idunno if your running kde.

when i type gaim at the command line
it then replies "gaim" command not found

did you run make install.

you'll most likely need to type the full path of where you installed it from. there are several ways to add it to your path so you wouldn't need to type the full path each time.

you can simply make a symlink to gaim that points to the actual path and add the link to maybe /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin or even the /sbin directory where most program/commands are found and used from.

or you can even add the path of where gaim is located to the users profile which can be .bashrc, .bash_profile... etc or globally editing /etc/profile for all users even.

Try typing "/usr/local/bin/gaim &" in your console.

If you go to /usr/local/bin and type "source /etc/profile", you should be able to run GAim from anywhere with simply "gaim &" at the prompt, regardless of the present directory.