OK first of all I am a newbie but I want to learn. I guess we all start somewhere. I decided I wanted to install a program from source. Opening the tarball and uncompressing it was no problem. However when I ran ./configure it failed saying there was no c compiler. I have then done a search on this forum and found out that GCC and some other files should be installed to fix this problem.

Then I went and ran a program that listed all the types of programs RH comes with. I selected development which included GCC and a bunch of other programs. When I told it to install it, it failed saying I needed krb5-libs and some OpenSSL files. I have no idea where to find these. I also don't understand why RH package installer did not say "Hey you need these files before installing the others. Should I install them for you?". From what I understand when you do the initial install RH checks for dependencies and asks if you want them installed. Why does it not do it here?

Thanks,

Zych

I found the dependencies for GCC at this site
http://www.rpmseek.com/index.html
It also has the links to install any dependcies that you need.

Hi,
Red Hat 9 doesen't resolve dependencies with its package installer (Add/Remove Applications) or when installing rpms. This can be a headache especially for users new to GNU/Linux - luckily, there is a simple command line program - apt for rpms - which is good at resolving library dependencies. I recommend this as a great easy install tool for Red Hat.

http://freshrpms.net/apt/

Follow the instructions in the above hyperlink (e.g. download apt rpms, "rpm -Uvh apt*", configure http repositories & "apt-cdrom add" [both optional], "apt-get update", "apt-get install gcc").

Note that when using and installing apt-get you need root permissions - remember "su" and "su -" give you temporary root privileges (or privileges and root path, respectively).

You will definitely need 'gcc' and possibly 'make' as well. You can also use apt-get for installing and updating a lot of major applications such as mozilla (apt-get install mozilla).

I'd like to point out that Fedora (successor to Red Hat 9) includes apt for rpms by default in its distribution:
http://fedora.redhat.com

Good luck!

thanks. I think I will give it a try. By the way I also want to say thanks for the rpm web site. I found gcc but when I tried to install it, it said it needed another file. Well I got that and when I tried to install it RH said it confilicted with a newer version of the same file or something like that. Very frustrating. I will download apt and see what it does. I don't think I can get much more frustrated but who knows ;-).

Also, once gcc is working you may also need the kernel source installed (depending on the software you're compiling). This is best done using Add/Remove Applications - select the Kernel package and update. (Sorry I forgot to mention this earlier).

I'm not sure what you mean by this? But I guess before we get to that how do I use apt? It installed fine and I looked at the examples. I tried "apt-get install gcc" but that didn't seem to work. (Do I need the gcc rpm and use that?) I also tried to install Synaptic but it fialed on dependencies also. Doh! If you could give me an example of what I would need to type in to install gcc and/or Synaptic (the graphical user interface for apt.)

Thanks,

Zych

I ran "apt-get update" and now it seems to work. I installed gcc (I think). I still get an error that states "No acceptable C compiler found in $PATH". Anybody have any ideas what would cause this? I am pretty sure apt installed gcc which I thought was a C compiler. Do I need to do anything to update the $PATH?

Thanks,

Zych

Make sure that you actually installed gcc
In a terminal type: whereis gcc

you should get a line that looks like this:

gcc: /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/gcc3.3-version /usr/share/man/man1/gcc.1.bz2

Thank you. I thought it installed but apparently it did not. I reran the "apt-get install gcc" and it worked this time. The whereis also showed it correctly. I did see another error when I tried to compile it but I will play with it and see what happens. This was a little frustrating but a great learning expereince. I tend to remember these types of things.

Thanks,

Zych