well this is my first day using mandrake 9.1 linux, a friend gave it to me and told me to put it on my old machine(hp vectra VLi8sf 600mhz) my first impression is WOW why didnt i switch 10 years ago, but now i am getting stumped trying to put new programs on.
i am trying to install java j2re-1_4_2_04-linux-i586.bin, now when i go to move the file to
/usr/local
it wont let me copy the file there, it says access denied: could not write to /usr/local/j2re..................

i am putting this on to run limewire, but like i said, i am very new to linux and any help in detail will be very helpfull. after using linix i dont think i ever want to use windows again, but if i cant figure this out i may have to continue using microcrap windows xp that crashes for no reason(bought the computer new a week ago and its driving me nutz, pay for tech support thats BS, bill gates what a jackass, i will put linux on the new machine )
thanks chris

you have to become root (the admin user) in order to install something across the computer.

so copy the j2re file to somewhere useful, then open a terminal.

now:
cd /where/you/put/the/file/ (this Changes Directory to the place the file is)
su (this makes you root, you'll have to enter the root password that you set up when you installed Mandrake)
chmod 777 filename.bin (this makes the file executable, ie you can now run it)
./filename.bin (this runs the file, now follow the instructions )


EDIT: Remember, you can type the first few letters of a filename and press TAB, and the terminal will automatically finish it off for you.

No worries ... just move the directory as root. Normal
users don't have permissions to write anywhere else
than in there ~home and /tmp (not to files others created).


Cheers,
Tink

Hi and welcome.

Well, first I'd like to say, the learning curve should be quick once you learn the basics.

Here we go:

If you can move or copy something to a directory, try doing so as root:

open up konsole or a terminal and login as root, then try to move it to that directory.

Do you know how to install the .bin file?

make sure you change the file attributes to executable by doing this as root:

chmod a+x your.filehere.bin //using your file name over course

then to execute this file:

./your.filehere.bin

it should execute the file.

let us know when you get this far...

Are you doing that as root? You need to use the root file manager (konqueror) . If you're doing it in the command line:

Makes you root if you fill in the password

Go to the directory with the file

moves the file to /usr/local

go to the local folder

allow the file to be executed

execute the installer.

If you put the name of the j2re-file instead of "file" (you can use TAB to complete a name, it's really nice feature) it should work.

HTH

Please either su to root and open up konqueror or some other filemanager and copy it from there or do this as root.

su
cp j2re-1_4_2_04-linux-i586.bin /usr/local/ && cd /usr/local/ && chmod 765 j2re-1_4_2_04-linux-i586.bin;sh ./j2re-1_4_2_04-linux-i586.bin

that should bring up the liscense aggreement follow the prompt and it will extract it in /usr/local. Then you will need to symlink the java binary to somewhere like /usr/bin like this:

cd /usr/bin
ln -s /usr/local/java/path to java binary

after that check to see if java is in your path just type java at the terminal.

The most simple way is to extract java in your home directory that way you never have to become root. Just find a way that best suits you.

Btw limewire rocks!

oh yeah,

try gtk-gnutella over limewire....

A simple day of downlng for me is......

Azureus for torrents (movies & full albums), Apollon connected to kazaa network with fasttrack plugin enabled., and instead of running gtk-gnutella to save cpu I just enable the gnutella plugin for Apollon. I generally run all thoose apps at the same time. Limewire and Azureus use the most cpu because it's "doing the java do" but all in all the p2p apps for Linux work nicely.