Let me start off by saying I am completely new to Linux. Basically, I want to learn how it works and try to switch from being so dependent on Windows. After reading around a bit, I found that SUSE 9.1 was supposed to be the most newbie-friendly system. Installation was fine and I got everything set up to a reasonable level, but I just can't get GAIM to work. The chat app that comes with 9.1 is the shittiest thing I have every seen and I want GAIM back. Can someone please give me a step-by-step process for installing GAIM? The instructions that come with the zipped files don't seem to work.

While I'm at it, can anyone recommend drivers for a Mobile Radeon 9700? I can't run any 3D apps as is, which I will want to change in the future.

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Come on folks, help out a newbie!

All right, I am also a newbie although I hate saying that on posts, and I have looked around and read many of many posts. I have an Apple as my main computer so i've had a lot of *nix exposure.

I got nothing qith Yask and afterdownloading the RPM of GAIM, I ran
from there I found
and in that folder as root I ran
Everything went okay until I got to the glib-devel. I did a filesearch and I found where glib-devel is on my system, but I haven't been able to find anywhere how I set that path. I tried one thing but it wiped out all of my paths except for that one path for the rest of the session.

So, to get you to the point I was at:
In the terminal navigate to the directory where your gaim.rpm is.
Any help from there from anyone would be fabulex.

Thanks for the help so far, still need more though. However, I am really new to Linux, so maybe you could explain something else to me;

I understand that RPM has to do with a packaging structure from RedHat (right?), but is it a standard system? I ask because if its not then can I find Gaim in a SUSE type package? Also, your in your command "rpm -i packagename.rpm" what does the -i do?

In case you can't tell, I'M A TOTAL NOOB!

I'm kind've new too but I have had some time with *inux. Yes, rpm is short for red hat package manager. But, the rpm is of the source.

rpm -i package.rpm
is calling the program "rpm" to "-i" install "package.rpm" This needs to be done in the same directory (Or include the directory path) as the package. Then you need to go to the other directory, /usr/src/packages/SPECS/ where you will see package.spec. With package being the same name as the rpm. From there you are calling the program "rpmbuild" which runs the ./configure make and install scripts which come with the source.
./configure configures the source to your specific computer
make compiles the source
install installs the binary.
I am not sure what the "-bb" flag is for with rpmbuild (You can look it up by reading the man page (comand line: man rpmbuild) followed by the package you want to install. And before I forget which I all ready did, the rpmbuild you want to do as root.

Anyone correct me if my assumptions are wrong with anything. I've read a lot of different things and I think I got it right .

But you will come into an error where in the middle of configuring the source for your system it will not be able to find the glib-devel. It is on Suse, just in a different place, and you need to set the path so the compiler can find it. Thats what I don't remeber what to do. When I find that out I will let you know.

Jake

Hi LJT, and Welcome!
RPM, stands for Red-Hat Package Manager, It was developed by Red-Hat. Anyway, it is not a standard, there are a lot of distribtution who uses it, for example: Mandrake and SuSE, and of corse RH & FC, (they are all SYS-V).
Slackware, Debian. Gentoo, .... each one has their own package system.
And you can always obtain the source code, and compile it yourself.
Suse uses rpm, but you have to download the rpm package for suse. FC or Mandrake rpms probably wont work, specially the Mandrake ones.

The -i option means: install , you can learn that kind of stuff using the man command: ex: man rpm
Hope it clears some doubts,
About your gaim problem, did you tried what jakobie told you?
Anyway, this is how i install rpms in Fedora: rpm -ivh <package.rpm>
Here are some links;
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/downloads.php(gaim site) No suse rpm here
Search for suse rpm here(there are a lot):
http://rpm.pbone.net/

http://freshmeat.net/projects/gaim/ The freshmeat.net gaim project site, just in case you don´t know of freshmeat.net existance.

If you have a dependancie problem when you install any rpm, you will have to search, donwload and install the needed packages.
Well hope it helps.

jakobie,
hi, why are you trying to build an rpm?
i mean is your gaim rpm a .src.rpm package or something?

The gaim file comes in either a .tar (with 2 different types of compression) or the src.rpm. If that gives you a clue as to what I need to do, post away.

I searched rpm.pbone.not for gaim and found some old .7x versions in RPMs meant for SUSE. I really don't want go back to an old version, especially since solving this problem will help me learn something about Linux systems. Actually, while the rpm seems to be the easier way to do things, I need to know how to install .tar programs as well. My school (Cal Poly) has a UNIX server set up for programming students and I have been using PuTTY and PSFTP to access my files there. I have the PuTTY as a .tar file but I can't run the "make" command as instructed. I get the feeling this is the root of the problem, since Gaim also needs the "make" command. Anyone know if I am missing some compiler or anything along those lines? If so, can you suggest a fix?

i guess that you didn´t install the needed packages, you need gcc and other compilers. did you install with the default options?
you need those packages, the way i see it you have 2 options:
1) download and install gcc, ...(others) maybe using yast
2) reinstall SuSE and select the packages yourself(it´s always better to select which packages to install)
anyway, maybe you would like to have a look here: http://elibrary.fultus.com/technical...n/ch02s05.html
look for the software section.
Good luck,

I just downloaded the rpm with out a specific distro labled on it. And so far it has worked. Could you help me with getting a path or letting configure know where my glib-devel is at? I will try downloading just the source not in an RPM and installing it later today. But I will probably still need to set the path for glib.

Hello again. After doing some searching, I found that I do not have GCC installed. So, I went to their website and downloaded version 3.4.2 as a compressed folder. After unzipping it, I followed their directions for configuring it and got this:

Script started on Wed 06 Oct 2004 11:30:14 AM PDT
pcp011087pcs:/home/ljt/bin/GCC # /home/ljt/Downloads/gcc-3.4.2/configure
loading cache ./config.cache
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
/home/ljt/Downloads/gcc-3.4.2/configure: line 2332: cc: command not found
*** The command 'cc -o conftest -g conftest.c' failed.
*** You must set the environment variable CC to a working compiler.
pcp011087pcs:/home/ljt/bin/GCC # exit
exit

Script done on Wed 06 Oct 2004 11:30:29 AM PDT

Anyone know what is wrong? As you can tell, I made a GCC directory in my bin for the installation and am working as a SU. The only thing I can think of is that there are other dependencies I don't know about.

Thanks again for all your help.

If you really want to install gaim, you should compile it from source. It seems like quite a task at first, but if you are serious about learning Linux, you really should learn. It's up to you of course.

1) Put in the SUSE CD, open Yast.
2) Use the search to search for GCC and Make. Install them.
3) Download the newest gaim source from
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
(should be 1.0) (it's at the bottom)
4) extract the tar.gz:

tar xvzf gaim-1.0.0.tar.gz

or use ark, it's your choice

5) go to the directory that the source is in and open a console there
6) ./configure
7) make
8) make install

It should now be installed in internet under Other programs I believe. It worked for me on SUSE, and should work for you as well. But I am using Gentoo now, so I may have forgot something.

I think you may find the following a simpler method for getting Gaim up and running and then keeping it upgraded at each new version is released.

1) First, grab the gaim, devel, perl and tcl Gaim rpms from here:
http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/rpm-...etwork%2Fgaim/

(This is a great SuSE rpm resource, by the way. It also has an rss feed, so you always know when new rpms are released.)

2)Next, in Konqueror, go to the folder where you downloaded all four rpms.
3) Once in the folder, select: tools > open terminal
4) type: su (root) and then your password).

This will land you the the same folder, but in root, via terminal.

5) Now, cut n' paste *all* of the following on one line: (space between each package, of course)
rpm -Uvh gaim-1.0.0-2suse91.i686.rpm gaim-devel-1.0.0-2suse91.i686.rpm gaim-perl-1.0.0-2suse91.i686.rpm gaim-tcl-1.0.0-2suse91.i686.rpm

These are the rpms you installed. This will install all four rpms at the same time, avoiding dependency issues you'll run in to if you try to install one at a time.

This should work for you. Please let me know how it goes.

Rory

Edit: see my post, below, about installing the other three Guru packages first.

By the way, if you open YaST and select Install/Remove software and then type gcc, you should see all the 3.3.3-41 gcc packages pop up, allowing you to install. This works for me on Pro - dunno if it works on Personal. That said, you may find the previous post re: installing the four Gaim rpms works anyway.

Woops, before installing those 4 gaim rpms, read this on the right side of the Guru rpm Gaim page and install this other set of packages, first.

"gaim requires the gnutls package, which isn't shipped with SUSE Linux.
I also provide those packages on my site:
» opencdk (which is required to install gnutls)
» gnutls
» libtasn1

Please install those packages first (first opencdk, followed by libtasn1, then gnutls and finally gaim)"

Once you do all of this, the first time, after that upgrading will be a snap each time. Guru also quickly releases new SuSE 9.1 rpms, right after Gaim releases them.