I just installed Redhat 7.1 and have it up and running however, when ever I try to install a program it is no where to be found.

I installed opera 5 and that worked fine its in all my GUI meumes for all users.

However, I installed StarOffice and its only in my KDE GUI for the root user.

And I installed some other GUI programs and they are nowhere to be found.

There should be an executable file in something like /usr/share/staroffice (or where-ever you installed it). You can make a new link to, and give it to every user by:

Right-click the desktop as Root (KDE) and 'create new link to application' (or whatever). Put in the correct details for where the application is. Click OK.

Open Konqueror and navigate to /root/Desktop and change the owner settings to allow all users to see it. Then copy this to all the other users' /home/xxxx/Desktop directory. With any luck, when a normal user logs in, they will have a nice little icon for StarOffice on their Desktop.

Does it matter where you run the program from?
I usually save all downloads to the / dir.

This may be stupid I don't know

yes, / is a very daft place to download files to. try somehwere mroe logical like /var/download or something.

it doesn't matter where you run a program for generally, as program data will traditionally be put into ~/ i.e. the current users home directory. of course if you're doing things like untarring packages , then you MUST MUST MUST be in a suitable location, as ti will open all data into the current directory.

I have the very same question as jpc82, but I still don't get it.

Thymox: What would that "executable file" look like? What would it be called? and what do you do with it? Click on it, and up pops the app?

"Put in the correct details for where the application is".
I installed a bunch of stuff from within Control Center and I haven't got a clue where those apps are, and if I did, I wouldn't know how to bring 'em up.

Are packages applications?

(I love Linux, but I miss InstallShield and those easy to find .exe files)

Unlike Windows, 'applications'/runnable files do not need to have an extension like '.EXE'. This can make finding them a little harder. Packages are like self-executing zip files (in Windows), except that they're not. They normally contain all the files needed (gfx and sfx for games, as well as required library files - .dlls under win) for a program to run, the executable file itself and all the configuration programs (which normally run transparently when you install them). If you can remember what a program is called (ie XMMS) then open a terminal session and type it.

Almost all packages will install into some default directories (/usr/share for non-essential programs). If you still can't find them, open up the package manager (or whatever) and search for the programs name. There is normally a tab somewhere on screen that shows you what files were installed where.

As a last resort, you could open up 'file finder' (presuming you're using KDE, K>Applications>File Utilities>File Finder) and search for executable files. Be warned though, it will find several thousand.

A note. Windows recognises executable files by their extension (.bat, .com, .exe, and that weird .pif). Under Windows, files have attributes (Hidden, System, Readonly, Archive). Under Linux, files also have attributes (owner, readable, writeable, executable) and any file that is given the executable attribute will be treated as an executable file, regardless of its contents. This can be helpful, but also confusing. I suggest you read some of the 'New To Linux from Windows' type HOWTOs. They're actually really quite good (even if they can take a long time to get going).

Keep us posted.

Thanks Thymox, that will help.

As for the HOWTOs, I've been reading 20+ Megs worth of 'em in the last 2 weeks, and as helpfull as they are, I find many of them are missing crucial details. But that's ok. It'll eventually click.