[HOW TO] Install Program from Source-tar.gz/tar.bz
 

i am using ubuntu gusty 7.10

First, please give details on something like this. As a minimum, tell us what you are trying to install.

Always try your package manager first for installing new SW.

tar.gz and tar.bz are suffixes to describe files that have be archived and compressed. When they are unpacked, they may or may not contain source code. The first thing is to unpack and see what's there:

For tar.gz:
tar xzvf filename

For tar.bz:
tar xjvf filename

You will now have a folder with the same name as the original archive. Open this folder and see if there is a file named "Makefile". If so, you will then typically enter "make" and "make install". But first, look for a "README" with instructions.

Dont you have to do a ./confgure too ? or is that not important ? I've been using Linux for about two years now and I'm not very much into this installing from source :)

There are several different methods for compiling source code. The most common is:

./configure
make
su root -c "make install"

In the sticky at the top of this forum are two links to existing threads about this:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-forum-103564/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ograms.-45094/

You do not always need ./configure. It depends on the specific thing you are installing.