hi all, this is my first post here, i am brandnew to linux, i have the redhat linux bible and a fresh install, im currently reading threw it when ever I can. I wanted to download the quake 3 demo at this path...
"ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake3/linux"
My book says download "linuxq3ademo-1.11-6.x86.gz.sh" so i did and it has no instuctions of how to install it. I know no one in my area who knows anything about linux, so here I am.
(i also tried the "linuxq3apoint-1.32b-3.x86.run" but it gave me some defult.ctf error )

thanks

also, do you know anything about transgaming.com? is it worth suscribing? can i get some info about how it works?

Unlike in Windows, there are permissions set for every file in Linux. Files need to be set 'executable' in order to run. File extension suffixes like '.sh' or '.run' or '.exe' do not provide this functionality, unlike in Windows. This is a security feature.

For the Quake 3 demo file, you need to set the permissions to execute. Do: chmod +x linuxq3ademo-1.11-6.x86.gz.sh. Then run it by doing: ./linuxq3ademo-1.11-6.x86.gz.sh (hint: just type ./linuxq3 then press the [TAB] key for autocompletion).

I've assumed that you've downloaded to your /home directory. One problem that I encountered when I tried Enemy Territory, is that I mount my /home to a different partition than my /. I couldn't run ET despite setting the permissions correctly. Then I figured out that my /etc/fstab (that's the filesystem table) wouldn't allow files to execute on the /home partition (this is also a security feature). To change this, edit /etc/fstab as root and look for the line with /home; then delete the option "noexec" from that line.

For more on permissions, read the Linux Cookbook, linked in my .sig

that worked great thanks! , quick question, do you use ./filenamehere to run programs with the .gz extention? is there always the dot and the slash?

The ./ prefix refers to the current directory. When you execute a program, your OS first looks for the program in your PATH. The PATH in most distros include /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /usr/local/bin, and /usr/local/sbin. So, when you use the 'ls' command, your OS looks in /bin, and executes /bin/ls.

If your program is not in one of your PATH directories, you need to explicitly state the path when you execute the program. For example, in some distros, lilo is put in the /etc directory; to run lilo then, you need to type '/etc/lilo'.

However, if you've already changed into the /etc directory (cd /etc), then you can type './lilo' which will run lilo from the current directory (ie. /etc).

So, for your Quake 3 program, if it is your /home/user directory, you can run it by typing '/home/user/linuxq3*'; or cd /home/user then type './linuxq3*'

Again, there are no such things as "file extensions" in Linux/Unix. The .gz is simply part of the file name. You can rename your linuxq3ademo-1.11-6.x86.gz.sh file to something shorter, like quake3demo (ie. mv linuxq3ademo-1.11-6.x86.gz.sh quake3demo) and it will still run as before.

cool thanks