First let me say that I have just started using Linux, so I am rather green. The version of SUSE I got was free with the purchase of Linux User & Developer. Now the article in the magazine said that the distro was a full working version, but it may be stripped of some functions. One thing that I have found is that when I try to install a package, I am able to use the tar command to "unzip", how ever I try to run make or makeclean commands and I get an error stating that they are unknown commands. I checked under the /bin directory and neither make or makeclean are listed. So my question is - where can I get these functions? Can I download these? What do I even look for?

which tar command are you using? and what is the package you want to install? basically, for a tar.gz package, the command is 'tar -xzvf <packagename>.tar.gz' and it should unzip. i used that version for a bit...it's just scaled back a bit on the packages and some libraries, such as it doesn't include any gnome...it's strictly kde...

I have a similar (if not the same) problem and it turns out the 1 disc OS doesn't have a c compiler (like gcc).

If you have a good internet connection you might have a look at the SuSE ftp site - provided you can figure out exactly what you need.

SuSE ftp

I used the tar command you specified, then checked the readme file for the package which told me to run make and then makeclean. I have tried a couple different packages (nmap and sniffer, are two that I can think of, however I am not at home so I not sure of versions).
On another note: a friend of mine has the full SUSE 9.1 pro install and has the make and makeclean in his /bin directory.

And that's my big problem. I'm not sure what I need for sure.

If you have internet on youu Linux box you can use YAST to download necessary packages and it will automatically find depenencies for you.

had the same problem, same magazine distro. Go to www.rpmseek.com and do a search for gcc (returning rpm's only), then select the gcc with hundreds of results. there is a package name, then the distribution next to it. Download the files (these are the versions i used, use your judgement) gcc-3.3.1-29.i586.rpm , gcc-c++, cpp (the pre processor needs to be the same version as the one gcc is, i had to do rpm -i --force /cpp-blargh.rpm, to get it to install as the one installed is a newer version and i couldnt find an identical gcc version). There are a bunch of extra stuff you can install, gcc-objc, gcc-info etc etc. they all add support for compiling diferent languages i think, and i installed them all just in case. Also had to install glibc-devel, libstdc++, and libstdc++-devel, to get it all to work ok.

Someone pointed me in the direction of the apt for suse command, which was invaluable, but i forgot the link, search the forums for it as it makes things a hell of a lot easier.

Can anyone who got the free suse disks tell me what the difference between the two disks are (desktop and server edition) as they appear identical to me.

Also if like me you are on 56k, so cant download stuff, the fedora core 2 dvd in Linux Magazine July 04 is excellent, if you click on install everything, its over 6GB!!!! that would be like my whole life downloading, all the sources and everything, so i can recompile everything to my hearts content.

Dear god, i feel giddy


EDIT: forgot, you' may need to download the make command as well (i had to)

http://linux01.gwdg.de/apt4rpm/

he's right..it's invaluable!!! it's all i use...

suse is an rpm (red hat package manager) based system, so you can find virtually any thing you need in an rpm format, which is soooo much easier to install. it's what apt-get uses, as well as YAST...

i guess i didn't use the version i got with linux user and dev long enough to find out that it is missing a few key things...i liked it enough (after using suse 8.2) that i just bought the full suse 9.0 personal distro at borders and installed it. i totally love it. suse is my top choice for linux distro. i've installed slackware 9.1 too, which is excellent for truly learning the insides of how linux works, but my distro of choice is definately suse...

*edit..
also you might wanna check this out...it's great for new people:
http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/index.html

Need to get past ./configure first, then I'll find uot sure enough.

As for apt4rpm, 'spose that requires internet connection which I haven't for the moment (under linux)