Installing Things
 

I'm a SuSE newbie (only had it about a month) and a former WinDOZE user so you'll have to forgive me for asking such a stupid question.

Installing things is like brain surgery. You have to go into Konsole and type in all kinds of weird stuff and MAN! Isn't there a easier way?!? I know like nothing about the commands you have to type.

Whenever I click the RPM or whatever, it SAYS that it installs, but I can never find it.

You should be able in KDE to just right-click on the RPM file and select actions > Install with Yast. That's really all there is to it unless we start talking about installing groups of packages. Other window managers will require a somewhat different approach but it is still not difficult by any means.

If you are operating in Gnome you will need to work in the terminal unless you decide to set up an install directory in YaST and work strictly from that path. For example, you could configure an install directory from /home/~/Desktop, place your RPM's there when downloaded, refresh the source in YaST, and the packages will appear in the Install and Remove Software module.

I'm too impatient for that (although it is a nice tool) so I just open a terminal and fromt there you have several options for installing the RPM packages. For example, you could cd to the directory of the RPM's and issue any of these commands:

rpm -i <name of package>
yast -i <name of package>
rpm -Uhv *.rpm

So, let's say that I've just downloaded an RPM file that contains the Opera web browser to my home desktop. Okay, here is what the start of the terminal session might look like:

If I downloaded a group of RPM's such as the Xfce4 Desktop packages to a folder in my home directory, the start of the terminal session might look like:

I tell ya, it's tough man. I've installed and lost all kinds of stuff. It's there somewhere, but where?!?

I think installing with Yast is almost Windows-like.

First of all I would have a look in your KDE menu. If it's an original SuSE package, there will be a link in most cases.

Next you can find a command if you type which <command> on console. If this returns something, you may always start this program by just typing the program name (command).

If you want to know where all files have been copied to, click on the RPM in konqueror and have a look in the tab 'Files', or type rpm -ql <packagename> on console.

Re: Installing Things
 

Give us a few examples and we will try to locate them for you.

Go to the "Find Files" or "Search for files", there should be an icon on your suse menu. I forget if it was called find or search cause I renamed mine

That is a good way to search your computer for certain things that were compiled and installed from source instead of using yast.

Once you find the binary file you are looking for, you can edit the kmenu to point to that file.

Re: Re: Installing Things
 

For example, Wine. I just installed it and can't find it for the life of me.

Wine is a command line program for the most part. Most people generally use their WM to associate the .exe file type with wine so that it will just automatically open that windows extension whenever it is run. Usually just a right-click on an .exe file > open with > wine (the exact method depends on the WM) is enough to get this started. However you can also use a terminal session to do the same thing. The arguments are very simple.

Here's a quick tutorial section: Using Wine

Thank you! I fixed all the trouble I've been having with Wine.

One more thing, I installed Bochs (an open source virtual machine type program) and I can't find it anywhere.

Look at these explanations on the SuSE site:

http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/in...&hl=suseconfig
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/in...showtopic=4343
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/in...showtopic=7335

HTH :)