how to install .tar.gz files:
I've read a few threads on this forum, and a couple of others. (yes, i did some light research b4 posting lol)
They all tell me the same thing:
upzip, cd to dir, then ./configure , then make install, then run the prog.
Here is the problem I've run into in like almost every one I've downloaded:
"
[root@localhost doom-1.8]# ./configure
bash: ./configure: No such file or directory
[root@localhost doom-1.8]# make install
make: *** No rule to make target `install'. Stop.
[root@localhost doom-1.8]# ./sdoom
bash: ./sdoom: cannot execute binary file
[root@localhost doom-1.8]# ./xdoom
bash: ./xdoom: cannot execute binary file
[root@localhost doom-1.8]# xdoom
bash: xdoom: command not found
[root@localhost doom-1.8]# sdoom
bash: sdoom: command not found
[root@localhost doom-1.8]# "

what am i doing wrong?
any help appreciated.
thanx

well I just downloaded that package you are trying to run and there is no configure script. I read the readme in the unzipped folder and it says :
So by the looks of things, you are just going to type :
from within the extracted folder.

P.S. do it as your regular user I see your logged into the terminal as root, unless you run your system stricly as root user.

What do README and INSTALL files say?

Did you check out the install or readme doc in the source code file?
90% of them go this way
./configure
make
make install

What app is this and where is it located?

Brian1

thanx for the responses.
it is doom 1.8 that i downloaded from an ftp site i found when i ran apt-get update

the files are located in /downloaded (a dir i created for, well, downloaded stuff lol)

I read the readme, etc and it gave little to no installation instructions.
but it did say that xdoom is the X11 executable and sdoom is the svga executable.

as u can see, i typed ./xdoom and ./sdoom both which tell me "cannont execute binary file"

how come it won't execute the executable? lol

but this is just one example of several .tar.gz files i've tried and got the same results

will temporarily modifying my $path to include this dir "/downloaded/linux-doom-1.8/doom-1.8" help? (nope)

Don't have time to play with but downloaded it and check the readme for xdoom. A bit odd but have you seen this instructions here. http://www.gamers.org/dhs/helpdocs/Linux-DOOM-FAQ.html

Brian1

nope, hadn't read it.
great read, thanx for the link... but it still didn't help. lol

"cannot execute binary file" ---> ???