Hi total linux noob here. How do i install things with tar.gz in Kubuntu?? I followed all the steps i found on the internet and it stopped working at the ./configure part. I typed in ./configure in Konsole and it said command could not be found. I have no idea what's going on, someone please help me!!!

Which program are you trying to install? There's a far easier way than the way you're trying. You have two options:
1.)In the terminal, type 'sudo apt-get install <programname>'. You may have to find the actual name of the package by searching for it with 'apt-cache search <searchquery>'
2.)Look for Adept, which does the same thing but graphically.

Really? I'm using Dapper Drake and some how i can't figure out how to install tar.gz programs with the GUI version of adept? any pointers?

What are you trying to install? Its probably in the repositories, which will make it much much easier.

IGF

The first choice is always the repositories. When you use Adept in the GUI--or if you use apt in the command-line--you are accessing "packages" stored on a server. Thus, you do not deal with tar.gz files, etc.
So--first do a search in Adept to see if you can find the app you want to install. Note that you may need to add some repositories to the list that gets searched. I don't have Adept handy, so I don't recall the details.

Second choice is a pre-compiled binary. This MIGHT come to you as a .tar.gz file, but not always.

Third choice is compiling from source.

My advice is to learn your way around the system--using what is available in repositories--before going in deeper.

By the way, ./configure probably failed because you do not have the compiler installed. Search Adept for "gcc" or "build" sometimes there is a package called "build-essentials" that installs everything you need to compile SW.

These will help you get started, please read them, they will save you alot of headaches:

https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/kubuntu...e/C/index.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/kubuntu...lications.html

https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/kubuntu...e/C/adept.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/kubuntu...C/apt-get.html

Ok, i have GCC installed right now, i'm trying to install firefox 2 from the command line. I've already extracted the tar.gz file. Opened up console and set it to my extracted firefox directory typed in

brendan@brendan-desktop:~$ /home/brendan/dls/firefox
bash: /home/brendan/dls/firefox: is a directory
brendan@brendan-desktop:~$ ./configure
bash: ./configure: No such file or directory
brendan@brendan-desktop:~$




Also the make or sudo make commands don't work either
brendan@brendan-desktop:~$ cd /home/brendan/dls/firefox
brendan@brendan-desktop:~/dls/firefox$ make
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
brendan@brendan-desktop:~/dls/firefox$
brendan@brendan-desktop:~/dls/firefox$

Also, i can't find firefox 2 in adept so that's why i'm doing it this way. Someone please help!

From the command line:
"sudo apt-get install firefox"
without the commas
Check your repositories to see if firefox2 is in there.

<<lots snipped>>

Firefox does not require compiling!! (The second method of SW installation in my earlier post.)

When you extract a set of files, look in the folder using "ls -a" (shows all the hidden files). If you see things like configure, config, makefile, etc. then it need to be compiled. If there are a whole bunch of files ending in .deb or .rpm, the you install with your package manager.

Otherwise, you generally just run the program--or maybe an install script. In Firefox, I think you just go to the folder with all the extracted stuff and do: ./firefox

Now that we're past that, I just checked---Firefox 2 is in this repository:
http://apt.mepis.org/6.0/
Add this to you repository list, and you can maybe get it with your package manager. (No guarantees since it is Mepis)

See "How to install ANYTHING in Ubuntu!" at http://monkeyblog.org/ubuntu/installing/ Ubuntu is Gnome based and there are slight differences with Kubuntu being KDE based.

See also the Unofficial Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake) Starter Guide at http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Dapper

The quickest and easiest thing to do, for someone completely new, if you have a quick download speed, is to install the script Automatix at http://www.getautomatix.com/ This will download and install lots of useful stuff.

The best package manager is Synaptic rather than Adept

Ok, so I can't find Firefox 2 in the repositories only firefox 1.5 is available. How do i install the tar.gz file that i just downloaded from the mozilla website?

Download the tar.gz file
I've never downloaded the tar.gz file, but I just viewed it and the binaries are all done and made for you. You can just extract it and run it.

Do i need to extract it to a specific location?

I usually extract (pre-built binaries) or install (binaries that were just made) to /usr/lib and set up symlinks to /usr/bin

For example:
me@you:~$ tar -zxvf firefox.tgz
me@you:~$ su
root@you:/home/me# mv firefox /usr/lib
root@you:/home/me# ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

/usr/bin is usually in the PATH variable so from anywhere you could type firefox and it'll start up.

That's odd since firefox 2 should be in the repositories. Can you post what's in /etc/apt/sources.list?

I'm assuming you're using Edgy, though I suppose it's possible firefox 2 never got released into the dapper repositories if you're still using that