I just install slackware but when I download programs, like firefox web browser, then where the hell should I save it? In /root , or in /usr or maybe in the /home directory... or does it really matter?

Personally, I have a directory /home/downloads that is accessible by all users, and as the name implies when I download stuff thats where it goes.

If you are the sole user then you could just as easily save it to your own /home/user directory.

Its entirely up to you.

Yea, i too have a 'dl' directory under /home

When i install programs by hand, like firefox, amsn, and similary i usualy drop them under /opt.

More "critical" programs goes under /usr

But as mentioned before, it's entierly up to you. As long as you have som sort of system to it, it realy dosn't matter where you put your "stuff".

Edit:

/usr is probably the most common place to put programs. Everything else usualy ends up under /home/'user' or a /home/'shared folder''

When I installed slack9.1 I created an additional rather large partition. A 60 gb partition I added to fstab to mount as /home/"username"/data (substitute "username" for your username). That way if I ever need to reinstall the OS I don't lose any of my data. That's where I save my mp3's, movies, etc.

LOL
I have stuff scattered and installed across 4 drives, 11 partitions and this is my "little" box...
TheDragon on the other hand has 8 drives, 4 disk RAID5 and 27 parts not including swaps and cluster node drives. Add up all the giga bytes in the house and I break 1000gigabyte mark... Is that a tetrabyte or what???
" IF you are going to have a home computer you may as well have the biggest and fastest privately-owned, home based super computer"
I am chaseing her "wulf" speeds
http://bolo.camarades.com/

See I am not the only female geek with home super computer goals... Girls rock!!!

I remember reading that the Slackware convention is to save downloaded .tgz files that are not part of the core distribution to:
/usr/local/src
I find this useful, as many of the programs that I download are designed to work under many *nix operating systems, and they typically install the executable into /usr/bin, libraries into /usr/lib etc.

This is just a convention however, so you are free to do what you will.

So quick question, it doesn't really matter where you install programs? I've been trying to install MPlayer and not all of it is working right, currently its running out of /home/phiz/opt/ which I created. I find it annoying to put stuff in the /usr directory because I don't have write permissions. Should I just change the permissions with root?? It took me forever to get codecs into /usr/local/lib/codecs but when I compiled MPlayer it still can't find them, is it cause MPlayer is in the wrong dir?

Your question that started this thread is not what you are now saying in your last post. Where you store programs after you download them is much different than where do I install programs to. Slackware the convention is to install to /usr but many people use /usr/local because that is the default on lots of source files when you build and install them. You can install them anywhere but you have to worry about your path, libraries .... arch linux actually does this and puts all the apps in the /opt area. You say you do not have write access to /usr but then talk about changin things as root. You should install programs to your box as root and would therefor have write access.

Hey, that was my first post in this thread. I meant that I don't have write access to /usr as phiz not root. Doesn't it just install to wherever you run make install?? Or should I use a option when running ./configure?? How would you resolve issues if a program was written to be run out of /usr/local but it was installed in say ~/opt/ ?? Sorry I'm new at this

Sorry, I had a brain fart. I thought you started the thread also.
Unix does not want every normal user to be able to install programs for security and stability reasons. If you want to install to ~ (home directory) you would have to pass that during ./configure. Normall you will do as your user ./configure and make. Then as root you run make install. This will then install the program to /usr or /usr/local unless it has been told otherwise. See your path right now allows you to type mozilla or use the drop down menu because the system looks in /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin for executables by default. If you install them somewhere else the system doesn't knkow to look for them there. Also when you install them elsewhere then other apps that are needed or that need the newly installed app can not find each other without you specifically informing them where they are. So unless you want to always be thinking about using ./configure --prefix=/usr or some other message, you will be better off keeping the programs installed in the normal places.

Ok I see, I didn't understand that running make install as root automatically puts it in the right place. How come I get a binary in the directory I ran 'make install' from as well? I just checked my /usr/local/bin and see that there is an mplayer and a gmplayer so I guess it did work right. Does that mean that the directory I ran 'make install' from is just an installation directory and can be deleted after I run make install??
Also, a quick question on MPlayer... I put the all-in-one codec package into /usr/local/lib/codecs like the directions told me to and uninstalled and recompiled MPlayer but I still can't view wmv9 files and my ogm files don't work right with multiple audio and sub channels. Did I miss something?
ps i downloaded the 'western iso fonts' and put them in the share font directory before compiling as well

You can use that binary in your build directory to test your program after you compiled it (after "make") and before you install it (before "make install"). That's handy because it gives you a chance to test your program before you install, thus saving you the bother of manually removing everything if you change your mind.

Better yet is to use the program "checkinstall" ( in /extras) instead of "make install" so you can then install with slackware's packaging aps installpkg, removepkg, and pkgtool. Checkinstall will create a standard slackpack install it and leave you a slackpack in the build directory to archive wherever you want.

I save all my tarballs, slackpacks, rpms (usually libraries I build into slackpacks) and other such things in /usr/local/src. The slackpacks don't always work in the next slack version so keeping the source is important while the slackpacks are only for other boxes running the same version.

Everything is downloaded into ~/downloads and builds happen in ~/downloads/sandbox.

I keep /usr/local and /home on separate partitions so they can be isolated from an install if that has to happen.

In addition to great advice, justwantin, you really made me crack up. Playing in your sandbox? Hillarity. I never thought to keep the packages after install (I always save the source tgz). I may have to start doing that.

-- Poetics

Thanks justwantin, very useful info! You didn't state it explicitly but I'm assuming from your post that I can in fact delete the source folder that I run 'make install' from. I like your sandbox, I'm gonna have to use that . I'd like to repartition my HD but that will have to be a future project as I don't have time to get everything working again. Also, I'm a Mandrake stow-away in this thread so I don't have slack-pack, would there be a mandrake equivalent? pkg-config maybe?

you can delete the folder and it will not interfere with using the installed app.