I have tried to download items, such as games, but having real problems. What is Xarchiver?????

Anyone able to give me an idiots guide to downloading on linux, PLEASE. Only previous experience is with windows, and never had a problem

cheers
318

What distribution of Linux are you using? Some have wonderful methods to install software built right into them.

Xarchiver is a program that will extract compressed folders for you. When you try to download if it is compressed xarchiver is offering to open it for you.

If you could shed more details as to what distro you are using and what you are trying to do we could give more specific help.

You may find this useful:
http://fossblogs.wordpress.com/2007/...ing-in-ubuntu/

I am not certain, but you probably are seeing xarchiver because you are attempting to install a packagname.tar.gz file by simply double clicking on it or just typing it as an executable command at the command line. It sounds like your linux distribution is attempting to unzip and untar the file to reveal source code that you can compile, configure, and install.

As pointed out above, most linux distributions now use a package manager to make life easier. You don't need to resort to source code much anymore. Which distribution are you using?

If you have a .tar.gz file, you normally install like this:

gunzip packagename.tar.gz
tax -xvf packagename.tar

This will create a new directory named "packagename" wherever you issued the tar command. You then use cd to go into the new directory and enter either

su, and give the superuser password
then
./configure
make
makeinstall

or

sudo ./configure
then
make
makeinstall

to install it. Normally when the file is untar'ed into the new directory, there will be a README and INSTALLATION file in the new directory. You can read these with any standard word processor in linux.

Hope this helps, but again, tell us the distribution you are using. There is probably a much easier way to install the package you want.