Installing a program in Linux

kopite2012 · 10-01-2004, 08:47 AM

I am trying to install a Vulnerability scanner program in Linux (Red Hat 9, no GUI).

The installation requires me to compile and install four tar.gz files. I have done the following

tar -zxvf nessus-libraries-2.0.12.tar.gz
tar -zxvf libnasl-2.0.12.tar.gz
tar -zxvf nessus-core-2.0.12.tar.gz
tar -zxvf nessus-plugins-2.0.12.tar.gz

cd nessus-libraries
./configure

When I type the ./configure I get an error message that reads "No such file or directory". I'm assuming that I did not unpack the tar files in the correct manner? Is this correct? if so what do I need to do to correct this problem.

The installation instructions do not tell me how to unpack the tar.gz, Thats why I'm thinking I have unpacked them in the incorrect way. Many thanks in advance for any help. regards,

rjlee · 10-01-2004, 08:57 AM

You have unpacked the archives correctly.
./configure is a good bet for configuring software but it isn't universal. There's often a text file named INSTALL with instructions.

You may have to make the configure script yourself using automake (try typing automake before ./configure), or you may have to edit the Makefile by hand if you need to reconfigure the software.

You could also try just skipping the ./configure stage; if a Makefile has been set up then this will compile with (hopefully) sensible default options.

kopite2012 · 10-01-2004, 09:21 AM

Thanks rjLee,
but when I look at the install_readme file it tells me that I have to type

cd nessues-libraries
./configure
make
make install

The files that are available in this directory are:
install_readme
make file
readme.bpf
readme.hpux
aclocal.m4
include

What do you mean when you say I may have to manually edit the makefile. Also when I tried automake, i get an error that says "configure.ac or configure.in required."

Hope you can help.

justin_p · 10-01-2004, 09:45 AM

make sure you include the full file name with the version numbers. Run ls in the directory where the packages were uncompressed. That will give you the full directory name of the uncompressed tarball. cd into that directory and then run ./configure. You can run make as a user but you have to run make install as root.