Installing software in Linux

akiko_f · 06-19-2005, 02:32 PM

hello,

I am a newbie and I have just moved to Linux. I would like to know (in steps) about installing a software that I have downloded from the internet. For example, I downloaded Firefox in Suse and it comes with a ".tar" or ".gz" extension. I double click on it and it opens a folder. Now, I do not know which file to "double-click". There are no files with ".exe" extensions so I am kind of stuck! Please let me know in steps so I can follow and use them for any other installations

Thanks a lot

Aki

craigevil · 06-19-2005, 02:51 PM

HOWTO - Install Software [README]
http://www.linuxforums.org/tutorials...ial-19957.html

dinolinux · 06-19-2005, 03:00 PM

Hi!

Installing software in Linux is not so straightforward as in Windows. If you are using KDE, right click the tar.gz or tar.bz2 file and choose extract -> extract here. When the archive is unpacked you will see a new folder with the name of the software you're installing. Go into that directory by double clicking and press F4 on your keyboard. A console will pop up. In the console write:

Code:

./configure

It's important this process is completed successfully, if not look at the last line what's missing ad install the missing program. When this completed successfully type:

Code:

make

This also has to end successfully. Then type:

Code:

su

It will prompt for a password, write your root password (You set it when you installed Linux). Then type:

Code:

make install

Now your software is installed. To use it, type exit and type the name of the program you installed.

akiko_f · 06-19-2005, 03:05 PM

Hello dinolinux

Thanks for your feedback. I was always been intrigued by "./" notation. I have seen this on many websites and I could never figure that out. When I open a console I see

aki@linux:~>

so given your commands should I type:

aki@linux:~>./configure

Please let me know.

Aki

dinolinux · 06-19-2005, 03:20 PM

Hi!

First of all before doing ./configure make sure your're in the unpacked directory. For example you're building a program named helloworld-0.2.1 then type:

Code:

 aki@linux:~>cd helloworld-0.2.1
aki@linux:~>./configure

Then, your question:

On UNIX systems all executables reside in bin directories like /bin /usr/bin and so on. When you're installing software you need to run a script from the directory the software is in. You can't move the script to a bin directory. So when using the ./ you're telling the system that the script is in the current directory, not in some bin directory. You can try to run configure without the ./ and see what happens.