Ok Gang:

I finally overcame the password issue, attempted to launch my application, and wound up getting a gazillion files. One of them, the configuration file says in order to run graphics, I will need gcc, nasm, svgalib, and possibly oss. I found a placre to download gcc. It must be a file as big as a barn, because it will take more than an hour to download it.

The question(s): What are these files( I know what oss is), and what do I do with them when I get them? (I'm getting old and this stuff is hurting my brain)

Does this need to move to another area?

gcc: gnu compiler collection ( gcc is the frontend to c, g++ for c++, etc...) note that to install gcc from source you have to have gcc already installed ( a circular dependency)

nasm: an assembler

svgalib: low level graphics library

what distro are you running? all of these are available for virtually all distro's and come in pre-compiled ready-to-run packages which would be much less headache than the route you are going now.

Thanks. I am currently dabbling with Knoppix 3.7, just to get my feet wet, but suspect that eventually I will wind up with a dedicated machine and mandrake 10.1

try to use apt-get to install the package.

as for mandrake, when you do the install, unless you are cramped for space I'd install anything and everything related to development. the packages will not hurt you too much for space, and some of them you will probably never use, but it will save alot of headaches ( it's a good idea with all distro's ( the ones that split their packages (rpm based, debian based, etc...))to do this).

Will Do. I have a 4 gig HDD that I plan to put in the dedicated machine, so that should leave me enough space. If I need a little more I think I have a 1.7 gig drive out there that I could add if necessary. many thanks...