I must be doing something funtamentally wrong....

that's the conclution I've come to after realising that everything I've tried installing from source, has failed...

First of all...
I'm running Mandrake linux 10.0 official release.

I've tried installing:
- Amarok
- kdestation
- gstreamer
- streamtuner
- gcc 3.4.2
- GTK 2.4.13
- Glib 2.3.7
- pango 1.4.0
and others
(I've also tried urpmi... that doesn't seem to do the trick either)

what i have done:
- I've downloaded the sources, to folder /home/"username"/Documents/Dls
- untar'ed them in this folder(in subfolder for each app)
- opened rxvt console (or other console) in that folder
and then performed commands:
- $ ./configure
- $ make
- going root
- $ make install
(with the any additional parameters given in the README or INSTALL file)

and getting different errors... even though some of them completed the make install...
look at some of my other posts if you want to know the exact errors for each app(some of my posts don't have error specs)

after having looked into it, it shows that none of the efforts i've made has payed off....

The main questions is...

What am I forgetting, leaving out or.....????

please... any help on this appreciated!!!

THX... JNaas

You untared all of them into the same folder?

Only use urmpi.

But before you are succesful you need to add to your sources the Contrib packages and the PLF packages because they have interdependancies.

Otherwise you will get errors upon installing.

Too do this easily go here: http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/

After this , all the software you listed will be installed via the "install software" and uninstalled at will with "remove software"

All dependencies will be taken care of automatically.

Installing from source is for the more experienced user in my opinion and is most of the time unecessary because most software in existence are packaged for Mandrake in the Main, Contrib and PLF sources.

urmpi is the way to keep your system clean and stable. Installing from source does not let you clean up afterward when you need to uninstal and you need to erase everything by hand, if you know where the files are.

yes, i would definitely suggest using some sort of package manager tool, especially if you want to install from source. i use slackware, which comes with 2 great tools, slackpkg and pkgtool. these allow me to install from source, but keep track of everything in a list, so that i can easily upgrade or remove packages as i choose. with mandrake, you're probably better off doing what steel suggested. if you are set on installing from source, check out swaret, and aptget. i think. or change to slackware, it rocks!

Then what are the name of the rpm i'm looking for if i want to install streamtuner then???

and no, in the DLs folder i untar'ed them into seperate folders

When all your sources will be set and updated from the ftp sites )(Main, Contib and PLF), when you open up "install software" from the start menu--system--configurations--packaging, you only need to enter search parameters.

For example I just opened it up on my system and entered the word "steam" in the search box and it found all software with the word stream in them.

I scolled down and found "streamtuner-0.12.5-2mdk in the list.

Simply click on it to select it and click install. Dependancies will be showed to you. Click ok to accept installing them too and that's it my friend.

Everything is installed. Just go look for the program shortcut, witch will most probably be in Start menu--multimedia--sound in my opinion.

Rubbish - installing from source is no harder than using RPM, he just needs some pointers in the right direction. If he gave us some of the error messages he's experienced I'm sure someone would be able to help, and there's probably a common reason why all programs are failing. Lack of a C++ compiler or something, perhaps.

...But is error messages were probably the goog old dependancies problems Linux as been plaguing end users with forever.

End users do not care about such things. Linux as to be conceived in a way that end users can do things in a simple way and powerusers do things the way they like.

Some distros are, some are not. Mandrake 10 is.

That's all I meant.