Hi,
I for the life of me cannot figure out how to install programs. I am using mandriva le2005.
I have scoured this forum and have printed off gobs of paper on how to install programs, bought a book at the local book store and I have been trying for hours to figure this out.
I think I have the RPM figured out, but anything ending in tar.gz or the like doesn't work.
I know my post is very general, but since I am so new to this, I don't know what info to give.
Thank you very much.

Hi, and welcome to LQ!

Which of the steps described in http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=45094
do not work for you?

You're best of if you give a practical example.


Cheers,
Tink

Hmm... I use Redhat, but I think rpm works pretty much the same, right?

.tar and .gz are somewhat akin to zip files or rar files. You have to unzip or extract the files from these packages first before you can install the programs. I suggest you try unzipping these packages by typing:

rpm -zxvf yourfile.tar.gz

on the terminal or shell window.

Hope that helps. If you don't trust me, you can check out the rpm help file, simply type rpm --help .

Hi,

Thank you.

".tar and .gz are somewhat akin to zip files or rar files. You have to unzip or extract the files from these packages first before you can install the programs. I suggest you try unzipping these packages by typing:

rpm -zxvf yourfile.tar.gz"

This i did.

Then I changed the directory to the program and then tried to ./configure which failed. Couldn't get past that......

Paul

Finally got somewhere with this.......I was able too unzip the file and then open the folder where they were unzipped and install it by double clicking on one of the files. However, the program is now installed, but there are no icons for the file which launches the program.
It would appear that I need to go back and try again.

This is what I did:

Step 1: cd ~
Step 2: tar xzvf name of program.tar.gz
at this point it unzipped.
Step 3: cd programdirectory
Step 4: ./configure (at this point I get the message: bash: ./configure: No such file or directory) I can't get any further than this.........

Ideas?

Paul

What program are you trying to install? If there's no configure script it might be a binary install like the firefox install or something.

As to the more general question of how to install stuff in Mandrake/Mandriva look at the instructions in my sig and at this thread http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=203939

Update: And of course see the entry in the Linuxquestions wiki on this topic:
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Installing_Software

Hi,
Yes I was trying to install/upgrade to the latest version of Mozilla. I kind of figured it out now, however, the program installed in the directory usr/ocal/mozilla and I can't seem to place a shortcut on the desktop or anywhere else? How are the firefox/mozilla installs different? Totally confused.......but still trying!!

Thank you for helping with the links, I checked them out and book marked.
Paul

You could have also installed it through the Software Install thingo in the Mandrake Control Centre. Even though the version number isn't up to the latest Mandrake backports all the security and bug fixes into it through the updated packages in Mandrake Update.

Another reason to install the Mandrake packages through the Control Centre GUI - they all have menu entry files that install automatically. You can create the menu entries manually by right-clicking on the menu button and choosing 'edit menus' and you can easily add shortcuts to the destkop by right-clicking and choosing 'create new'.

Most open source projects distribute their products as source code (due to the difficulties of providing one compiled package that'll work on all Linux distros). Distro makers such as Mandrake take that source code, tweak it so it works well with their distro (eg. adding menu entry files) and then compile it to build a package out of it (Mandrake uses the RPM packaging format). Because of the sheer number of packages and the depdencies between them modern distros then have another system on top of the base packaging system (RPM in Mandrake's case) that uses repositories to organise packages. When a user installs a package it searches those repositories for all the depedencies of that package and installs them too - saving the user a lot of time and effort in hunting down packages off the net. The mandrake system for this is called URPMI and the Software Install thingo in the Control Centre is a GUI frontend to it.

In all this the Mozilla downloads are a bit of a special case - they are already compiled, ie. they're not source code, but they are not RPM or DEB packages (the 2 most common packaging formats). In fact they are most like Windows programs in that you get the pre-compiled program which includes an installer wizard that you go through to install it.

LinuxQuestions.org- Installing Software easily on Mandrake/Mandriva - LinuxAnswers

URPMI/RPMDRAKE : THE FIRST THING TO CONFIGURE !

Mandrake:Package management - Linux 101

MandrivaUsers.org -> RPM-02: How to use Urpmi & solving dependencies

HOWTO - Install Software [README]

Compiling Programs from Source - LinuxAnswers

urpmi