Software Installation - How to Create MAKEFILE
 

Afternoon all,

So far so good in the warm Linux waters except that I am having a nightmare with software installation. Specifically, I'm trying to install P2P software from the following location: http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/mldonkey/ as recommended by Teval on this forum (cheers for the tip!)

I have a 633 Celeron running Mandrake 9 (or 9.1) and downloaded file mldonkey-2.5-4.static.i586-Linux.tar.bz2

Following advice given elsewhere on the forum, I was hoping to install the P2P software using the following commands:

bunzip2 mldonkey-2.5-4.static.i586-Linux.tar.bz2
tar -xvf mldonkey-2.5-4.static.i586-Linux.tar.bz2
cd mldonkey-distrib-2.5-4
./configure
make
su -c "make install"

All goes well until I get to ./configure - I get a new directory full of various files that relate to mldonkey but when I type ./configure, I get error "bash: ./configure: No such file or directory". Thinking I was typing ./configure incorrectly, I tried the following:

. /configure result="bash: /configure: No such file or directory";
./ configure result="bash: ./: is a directory";
. / configure result="bash: .: /: is a directory".

If I try to skip this step and just type "make", I get error "make: ***No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop."

No doubt this is a groanworthy question but I'd really appreciate any advice you guys could give.

Cheers!
The Luddite.

From the error message, it sounds as if you are in the wrong directory. Can you see the configure file? If so try using the full path to configure, such as /home/fancy/mldonkey-distrib-2.5-4/configure

# Guides to software management
LNAG - How do I install a program I downloaded from the Internet?
Rute Guide's software explanation
You might want to check out CheckInstall to manage source code installations/uninstallation

# Mandrake links
Mandrake home page
Mandrake Users website
Easy urpmi config for Mandrake
urpmi mini-HOWTO
Easy software management: Red Carpet
Maximum RPM
rpmfind
You didn't install the developmental packages? As root, command:
urpmi gcc
An Introduction to the Midnight Commander. You can install it by commanding:
urpmi mc
Midnight Commander home page

Cheers Fancypiper!

Err, pass - what does a configure file look like? I've had a butcher's at all the files in the mldonkey directory that was created and there's nothing called configure.

Am still getting all manner of error messages with the ./configure part.

One day I'll understand this and laugh - any more advice 'till then?!

Cheers,
The Luddite.

it will be a file with the name configure

Post the contents of the directory. Perhaps you don't have source code. The website mentions that it isn't GPLed, so you may have a binary to install rather than source code.

Can you see an INSTALL or README file?