I downloaded gnome's "Control-center", "Desktop", a font package and something else.

When I looked at each, I deduced the correct invocation was "./configure" followed by the program name. On all packages, I got dumped back at the cmd-line with a report of what was missing. Some requirements - like autoconf, aclocal, and a number of others I was unable to find either at Debian or the Gnome site. One configure try told me the installation script was screwed up. Another was a real catch 22, told me I needed some .deb packages but when I got them and dpkg -i "package" - one told me it needed a dependancy package first and when I tried to install it - this one told me it needed the other one FIRST

What gives?? has anyone managed to download these programs and install them

Well, I'll list out what you want to know, but understand if you want to compile this from source, its gonna take a little effort. for your development system, at a minimum ( and I stress minimum):

autoconf
automake
make
gcc
g++ (if you want the c++ wrappers for the gnome libs)
binutils
m4
pkg-config
perl
libtool
XML::Parser cpan perl module
and probably but I'm not sure (never hurts to have these if you plan on compiling anyway)
flex
awk
sed
python
gettext
hmmm...... that should be about it but I could be missing something. keep in mind, If you want to compile things from source all of the above pretty much apply ( not just gnome ).

also keep in mind while the following list will be long ( uhh, real long), alot of these are small packages that do not take alot of time to build. On my slack 10, with a athlon 2800 xp, it took about 4-5 hrs. for the base ( through control center with a couple apps here and there). If you do not want to do this manually, make sure you have the above satisfied in your development system and check out garnome ( which will build you a gnome desktop automagically). if you decide on garnome, I would suggest installing it in the default $HOME/garnome directory, or in something like /opt/gnome-2.8, /usr/gnome-2.8 or something like that ( you want it in its own directory, NOT in something like /usr or /usr/local ( so its easy to remove - just delete the whole directory and its gone).

and now for what you want to know, the dependencies for gnome 2.8:

External Dependencies:
pkg-config, available at http://www.freedesktop.org/software/...-0.15.0.tar.gz

The Xft2 and fontconfig family of libraries, available at http://fontconfig.org/

Note that while these libraries are available as part of XFree86 4.3, the newer versions from fontconfig.org are highly recommended.

FreeType 2.0.9 or greater, available at http://www.freetype.org/

docbook-xml [docbook dtd 4.1.2] ( I don't usually install the docbooks, but its up to you)

docbook-xsl [docbook xsl stylesheets]

shared-mime-info

hicolor-icon-theme

Development Library dependencies: (make sure you have the -devel packages for these)

*

libpng
*

libjpeg
*

libtiff
*

XFree86
*

libpopt
*

libbbz2
*

zlib
*

libfam
*

libgpg-error
*

libgcrypt
*

libtasn1
*

opencdk
*

gnutls
*

libgsf
*

libcroco
*

mozilla ( if you want to use epiphany, the gnome browser, you will need this - otherwise you can leave these out)


and now for building the actual gnome environment: (get ready)

NOME 2.8 Installation Order

*

libxml2
*

libxslt
*

gtk-doc
*

glib
*

libIDL
*

ORBit2
*

intltool
*

libbonobo
*

pango
*

atk
*

gtk+
*

gconf
*

desktop-file-utils
*

gnome-mime-data
*

gnome-vfs
*

audiofile
*

esound
*

libgnome
*

libart_lgpl
*

libglade
*

libgnomecanvas
*

libbonoboui
*

gnome-icon-theme
*

gnome-keyring
*

libgnomeui
*

startup-notification
*

gtk-engines
*

gnome-themes
*

scrollkeeper
*

gnome-desktop
*

libwnck
*

libsoup
*

evolution-data-server
*

gnome-panel
*

gnome-session
*

vte
*

gnome-terminal
*

libgtop
*

gail
*

libxklavier
*

gnome-applets
*

metacity
*

librsvg
*

eel
*

nautilus
*

gnome-control-center ( you can stop here and have a working gnome-2.8 desktop, just make sure control-center is added or it will not function correctly)
*

gtkhtml2
*

gnome-doc-utils
*

yelp
*

bug-buddy
*

libgnomecups
*

libgnomeprint
*

libgnomeprintui
*

gtksourceview
*

gedit
*

eog
*

ggv
*

gconf-editor
*

gnome-utils
*

procman
*

gstreamer
*

gst-plugins
*

gnome-media
*

nautilus-media
*

gnome-netstatus
*

gcalctool
*

gpdf
*

gucharmap
*

nautilus-cd-burner
*

zenity
*

at-spi
*

libgail-gnome
*

gnome-speech
*

gnome-mag
*

gnopernicus
*

gok
*

epiphany
*

gnome-games
*

gnome-user-docs
*

file-roller
*

gnome-system-tools
*

gnome-nettool
*

vino
*

dbus
*

hal
*

gnome-volume-manager
*

gal
*

gtkhtml
*

evolution
*

evolution-webcal
*

gnomemeeting
*

libsigc++
*

glibmm
*

gtkmm
*

libgnomemm
*

libgnomecanvasmm
*

libglademm
*

libgnomeuimm
*

gnome-vfsmm
*

libgtk-java
*

libgconf-java
*

libglade-java
*

libgnome-java
*

Glib (perl)
*

Gtk2 (perl)
*

Gnome2 (perl)
*

Gnome2-Canvas (perl)
*

Gtk2-GladeXML (perl)
*

Gnome2-VFS (perl)
*

Gnome2-GConf (perl)
*

pygtk

Thx Pygtk

Just writing that all down is a lot of work

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'compile' - I understand this to mean 'from a source text via a compiler to produce native machine-code'. However, compile seems to have taken on a different meaning these days.

I thought that ./configure ...... say "control-center-2.8.1" would configure the Gnome CONTROL CENTER for use by an end-user......but, from your instructions I gather that this is not the case.

The packages you indicated I have downloaded and it seems like many more which are 'dependancies'. I have had some problems installing some of these packages - for instance I:

dpkg -i autoconf_2.5xxxxx_i386.deb

and it came back and said it couldn't install because it was 'dependant' on - "autoconf2.13_2.13-43xxx_i386.deb"

when I "dpkg -i autoconf2.13_2.13-43xxx_i386.deb"

IT came back and said it wouldn't install because it was 'dependant' on "autoconf_2.5xxxxx_i386.deb

Neither one will install because of the it's "dependancy" on the other one

How do I get around this kind of problem

ok, heres how it works.......

packages come in two forms in linux ( there are more but we will only concern ourselves with these two for now). First is the precompiled binaries, which on your system will be in the form of .deb packages. to get and install these, you want to use dpgk like you are but in a different manner. The very first thing you do, (as root):

then:
so for example autoconf would be:
would install autoconf and its dependencies. (NOTE: you have to run apt-get update BEFORE you run apt-get install (not every single time, just periodically to update apt-get's database with what packages are available). apt-get uses dpkg in the backround to install packages so you dont have to dpkg everything manually and figure out dependencies yourself. So, you'll want to use this method to get all the things for you development system. You should definitely check out here now. Also, compiling the entire gnome desktop environment from source is a long chore. If all you want is a gnome desktop, apt-get can install that for you too( but I don't think it will be 2.8.1, not sure what version it will be, I think the STABLE branch is still using gnome-1.4 actually (SOMEONE PLZ CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG HERE). But this should get you what you want:
The second method for linux packages is the source code itself. When you say you downloaded control-center and such, did you mean the .deb packages or control-center-2.8.1.tar.gz? the second is a source code tarball (which is what i thought you were referring to). to install a source code package, first you have to unextract it like so:

for a source tarball ending with tar.gz:

for a source tarball ending with tar.bz2:

then, you cd into the folder that was unzipped, which lets say is control-center for example:

now we are in the folder where the scripts to configure and make it into executables is.

so the next step is:

this will configure the source for building. the --prefix option tells the script that when we install this, we want everything to be installed to /opt/gnome-2.8 and not the default /usr/local prefix ( it will be much harder to remove/upgrade if you put it here) so for example the control-center will actually reside in /opt/gnome-2.8/bin/control-center.

next step:

and finally (as root):

will install the package in the specified prefix. You would have to go all the way down the list for each one of these and do that procedure. Ideally, you should probably go with the apt-get method but if you want to do this from source, this is the way.