I downloaded some files they end with .bin. What do I do? I read somewere that I had to make it executables I did that but it doesn't do anything still.

Also after I uzip the tar.zips how do i install them?

Thanx

Try to find a readme file that came with the binaries, that should tell you what to do with it, otherwise just try clicking on them (or open them on the command line)

the tar files are what you might call a zip-file in windhoze. That means you have to unpack them. you do this with this command:
tar zvxf filename
e.g.:
tar zvxf xine-lib-0.9.9.tar.gz
Then you get a directory with all the unpacked files which usually contains a readme file which tells you what to do ( probably you have to compile the software which means you have to configure, make and install)
I like using mc (midnight commander) for doing a lot of this, it's simple and easy to use, it's also able to unpack things for you.

good luck!
Anne

Just open a console window, change to the directory that contains the .bin file and then just type the following:

sh filename.bin

what exactly does sh do?

sh is an interpreter normally used to run a script, "sh file.sh" with a .bin you should do "./file.bin" to run it from the current directory.

Ok, thanks for the explanation

So I've learned yet an other thing today....

Yes sh worked and made the rpm.bin a rpm. The purpose of me dooing this is to get java Vm installed on my machine if any one has done this pls tell me what to do the rpm doesn't do what its supposed to do, or i just don't know how to install this. Pls help i wanna swap mp3's , The program I am trying to use is limewire.

Thanx

Setting up Java isn't all that hard to do, here's how to do it:

First of all, don't download the RPM file, you have to download the .bin package.
Once you've done that create a folder in /usr/local called java so that it looks like this
/usr/local/java
Now copy or move the downloaded binary package to this directory and execute it as root.

This will create some directories in /usr/local/java which contain the java files.

Now you just have to set a symbolic link to that directory so that Linux knows that you installed java on your system.

Do it like this:

ln -s /usr/local/java/j2re1.4.0/bin/java /sbin/java

This should solve your problem.

Is this the same as JVM?

The description I posted above applies to the Java Virtual Machine installation, yep :-)

I have created the dir but how do i get to /usr in the terminal all i see is mail desktop/ core.

I downloaded the bin to my desktop and I can run it it fully extracts but then i try to install the other software and it does not see any VM.

I tried to create the symbolic an it executes fine, (I am under the impression that if u get no errors linux can do it). But i still get teh same thing no JVM detected in te path. What do i do now??

Thanx

YOu should place Java in your PATH If you do a search, I very recently have told someone how to do this. It goes something like this:

Add these lines to your '~/.bashrc' file:

#JAVA
JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.0
export JAVA_HOME
PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
export PATH

In order to let these changes take effect immediately, run this command:

source ~/.bashrc

Also, you should really update your user profile to at least reflect what distro you are using.

how do u update your user profile?

At the top of the screen there is a button that says 'user cp' click it, then you can edit a lot of things.