I have a CentOS 5 Server with Gnome on it. I tried to unrar files using the archive manager but it doesn't work. Can somebody teach me how to unrar on gnome? thanks

You have to install unrar (rar is a proprietary archive format, fortunately there is a free unrar program).

yum install unrar-free

I tried to type in the terminal

# yum install unrar-free

something came out but at the end it says something like "no package unrar available"

I'm running gnome and I wanted to open rar files using the archive manager, how can I do that? thanks

unrar rpms are available here.http://www.rarlab.com/rar_add.htm .once installed your archive manager should find it allow you to use it.Or you could use it on the command lind with unrar e nameoffile.rar.

Why not try p7zip, it can unrar.

p7zip? The problem is, I don't know how to install applications on my gnome, I don't know what to do with install.sh files, I double click them and nothing is happening, I tried adding software but still no luck. I'm a total linux newbie.. How do i Install p7zip anyway? Thanks..

Well, I believe CentOS is a clone of Redhat EL is it not ? If so, just either add a new repo and use 'yum' to install p7zip, or download the package and install it locally. Here's one repo that has it:
http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/p7zip/

Look at the sticky at the top of the Fedora forum. The same livnia repository may have an unrar package. Also look in the http://rpm.pbone.net website. Filter the results for your distro and see if you can download a package for your distro version.

The "rar" package may be available from livnia or another repository as well. It uses non GPL code and so can't be distributed by RedHat.

Also, please learn how to use your package manager and the rpm command. For an install script or a tarball, you need to install from the console. And the first step is usually to read the README file. That is what it's there for.

brother like winrar ,rarlinux is also available in RARLAB.
check it here

http://rarlab.com/download.htm

when you go to a terminal and write the path to the file including the file, it should run it (the .sh file).
You should be able to choose "run it in a terminal" when double clicking a working sh file (not just some file that someone added .sh to it) - a selection should pop up.

Debian

Drat, I'd have hoped the free package would be available in your default repos. possibly it is just called something else.

Have a look at the unofficial fedora faq for in formation on how to set up a decent set of repos for yum.

Once you've done that, install packagekit

yum install PackageKit

... this will give you a gui for yum. you can use the gui to search the repos for an unrar package.

OR: you can ask the person who supplied the rar package to please repack in a free/libre format - like gzip.

Any distro using yum or rpm (Fedora/RedHat, CentOS etc) as package manager should be able to use the RPMFusion repos.

Visit www.rpmfusion.org and follow the instructions. Everything I have ever needed has been available there.

RHEL/CentOS 5.x

For x86
For x86_64

RHEL/CentOS 6.x

For x86
For x86_64
To extract .rar file

In GUI use nautilus(explorer).

In terminal:

To extract files:
To list the files:
To test the integrity:

You all realize that this tread dates from 2008. A lot has changed in the world of Linux and rar since then.

(I've done the same thing myself--don't feel bad.)

D'oh!