I'm new to linux and I have been having many problems installing software. I am currently using SuSE linux 9.1 and I know pretty much the basics of installing programs, but can't seem to get it to work. An example of a program I tried installing was with Audacity. I followed what it said and extracted the tar.bz2 file and ran the terminal and typed in ./configure. It then came up with this: checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cl... no
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log' for more details.

And it's done this with a lot of other stuff i've tried to install...so if someone could tell me exactly what I need to do step by step I would appreciate it. Thanks!

1. pop in you suse CD.
2. open up yast2 select "install and remove software"
3. use the pull-down next to "filter" to select search. Type in "gcc" in the search field. Hit search.
4. Check the packages, "cpp", "gcc", "gcc-c++", "libgcc", and "libgcj"
5. Hit accept.

Now try all the stuff you were doing before. You just don't have the compiler installed for the software you are trying to compile!

Ok well I put the SuSE cd in just like you said and went into yast2 and I opened install and remove software. I then typed in gcc and all that came up was libgcc and cpp. Those were both already installed, but I updated and it didn't do any good. So now I don't know what to do from here...any ideas?

In yast (the same place you were) instead of choosing SEARCH, choose by Package Type. Then, scroll through the list of packages, and choose to install the "Development Tools." this should get you gcc, make, automake and all of their friends, too.

HTH

Try APT4RPM.

Did you make sure to check the box that searches the descriptions as well? Also the last two posts are good ideas also.

Ok, I'm pretty sure I did all I could, but it still won't work for some reason. I installed all the development tools and I tried installing the apt4rpm with yast and it did it so fast that it didn't even seem like it installed properly. So it's getting a little frustrating now and i'm pretty sure i'm doing everything you guys are telling me...

What does "rpm -q gcc" say? If it says something like "package not found" you'll need to try "apt-get install gcc" (using apt4rpm which you just installed).

Well, what I did was I downloaded apt4rpm and then I installed it with yast and then yast just closed automatically and thats all that happened...was that what I was supposed to do?

I have no clue how YaST works, but you can always try "rpm -q apt4rpm" to see if the package was installed. The -q option to RPM means query and when given a package name and no other arguments will tell you the version of that package you have installed (or an error if you don't have that package installed).

Ok I checked to see if it was installed and nothing came up so i'm guessing it wasn't. I don't see why it didn't install though. I've tried it more than once. If someone could tell me what I need to do that would be great.

Are you using Personal or Professional? Personal doesn't have the development tools such as make, C++ etc on the CD. You need to download them from the SuSE site.