Former WinBlows user. I'm used to simply putting it under "Program Files" under a folder for the program and such. Is there an equivalent?

There isn't a simple answer to your question.

Start reading this post (I know is long, but you'll learn a lot).

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=203939

they go where ever you want.

I use /usr/local/ as the base directory for most of my installs. If the "downloaded" program is in source code instead of binaries, I put the directory under /usr/local/src instead.
Basically greenmeanie is right, but I'd suggest placing them where it makes sense to you.

That's part of the problem. I installed Firefox in my home directory by mistake.

I'm trying to install Adobe Acrobat Reader and Firefox. I tried the Easy URPMI thing discussed in the thread you referenced. Didn't find either in the list of files.

I can download the programs, and Firefox has an installer that works quite simply, but it wants to install in my home directory and I don't want that. That's why I ask where is it supposed to go...

Adobe, I can't do anything with. I tried the tar xvf thing discussed by trickykid. I also tried extracting the tarball (?) with Ark, but the Readme file is quite worthless and the Install file don't do a darned thing.

Part of my frustration is that I don't know why there are 10, 15, 20, 100 different ways to do this one thing: install a program.

While this is a Mandrake forum, you are getting some answers which are more closely tied to "generic" distributions.

Mandrake has it's own "unique" directory structure which almost adheres to that used by most other distributions.

That said, it is NORMALLY not required for you to specify anything...

That is if you use URPMI.

URPMI contains a list of pre-mandrakified packages of programs.

These are pre set with special scripts that are run at installation, to automatically configure the program for proper operation with Mandrake.

In turn one program may rely upon the presence of another program, library, or utility to function. With Tar's, etc. you have to figure everything out, which can be quite complex.

With RPM's (via URPMI) everything is done for you. Any pacakage that may be required is also automatically installed (called a dependancy).

It is normally INAVISABLE to try to install tarballs, etc. under Mandrake. You should only do so if a) there is a high need for a missing package or program, b) there are NO RPM's compatible for your Mandrake release elsewhere.


Installing non Mandrake tarballs can at times "break" the entire distribution (like people here have done with wrong perl updates) or leave things in an unstable state.


If you cannot find firefox in URPMI (which I believe is there, though I may be mistaken), then try googling for Mandrake 10.x RPM's first before resorting to other means.

That said some third party mechanisms for software installs tend to be "safer" than others, and things like Thunderbird, Firefox and Mozilla do a pretty good job not stepping on important files.


The convention is that user installed files go in /usr/bin or /usr/share/bin however many OS files have found there way into these directories.


Tarballs use the directory structure of the machine they were built on, for the most part. This can cause problems.

The configure script builds a makefile with targets in the wrong place.

This can be corrected with

./configure --prefix=/usr

But again avoid all of this whenever possible.

Explore URPM and RPM drake (they are really one in the same).

Almost anything you should ever need should already be available to you via URPMI/RPMDRAKE.

After I install a program tellico-0.13.5-0.1010.1mdk.i586.rpm, where am I supposed to look for it? It seems to have been installed but I can't find which directory it's under, i tried typing tellico in the console, but it couldn't find it.
Is there a default directory rpm packages are installed to? Why isn't it stated during the installation? Thanks for the patience.

<Tellico> It's under Office-->Accessories, great program :-)

I wish it was there, but it isn't. I only got default accessories there that were installed off the Mandrake CD. Where do I look for the programme I installed manually?

OK, an update, it turns out the programme hasn't been installed because there is a missing file libyaz.so.2, where do I get it from? Thanks.

I'm not sure where you can get that missing .so file from, if you have yours sources set (see info in my SIG) you can type as root urpmi tellico, that will fetch and install the program along with any dependencies.

The package you need to install is: libyaz2-2.0.21-4mdk. You can use urpmi to install it.

Thank you! But I'm afraid I don't know where to look for it...

Set up your repository sources via Easy Urpmi. See {BBI}Nexus{BBI}'s sig, or my sig, or opjose's sig in this thread for links. Make sure you include "main", "updates", "contrib", and "plf" sources. Once you have followed all the instructions from EasyUrpmi, just go to the Mandrake Control Center/Software Management/Install screen, and search for "libyaz2". The file named above should be listed. Select it, and click "Install".

Try
http://mandrake.cict.fr/official/10..../media/contrib
There's adevelopment package as well which may be necessary
Why not add the mirror to your uprmi sources using easyurpmi

Thames