Easiest way to install .TAR Apps??
 

hey ya'll
i've got a question..
i find that it takes a great amount of time and some confusion when i try to install programs that are downloaded with the name:
filename .tar.gz or .tar.bz2
first you extract, then you ./configure and then you make....but if you don't have all the other files and "stuff" it won't make....so then you go back to the README file and try to decipher it....which is sometimes successful, and sometimes not...but after you get all your files and "stuff" , you then ./configure and make and make install ...and so on....how is the easiest way to do this when you are having a hard time finding an .rpm version of the prog?
also....
if you get a bunch of errors, can you debug them with a terminal command? ...
are there special apps out there that do all of this for ya?
wonderously,
Rob
:newbie:

IMO there really is not other way to installing from source. But since your using an RPM distro I suggest you take a look at http://apt.freshrpms.net also www.rpmfind.net is a good site when looking for rpms. You may also want to look into checkinstall (googel for it) it well make rpms debs and tgz packages from source.

Hope This Help

xquizit

binaries
 

In addition to the above input, you can always try to find binaries. If they don't exist, you can contact the developers at their homepage, ask them to make a binary for your distribution, or tell them abou the errors you are getting.

if things aren't compiling from source, a good idea would be to check if you have gcc installed and other developement tools. but like xquizit says apt and synaptic are good for rpm distros as well as .deb distros.