Installation Help!!!!!!!!!
 

I have installed Linux today. Fortunately it has most of the programs that I need, and don't have to do a lot of installing. But I don't know how to install anything here at all. I download files with extension .tar.qz and after I extact the files and try to open the file i don't see any setup.exe files or nothing that say .exe. Please help me, what should i do. And one more thing. I have an mp3 player, but Linux doesn't recognize it. Do I have to download anything? And if yes how i am going to install it? Thanks in advance.

To help us a little more, it would be nice if you could tell us which distrobution you installed like Redhat, Ubuntu, SusE, etc.

Without that knowledge, here is the help I can provide.
There are no .exe files because file extensions aren't really important in linux. If you download a 'tarball' which is the package.tar.gz that you have. You would usually unpack it to a temp directory and then compile it. The command to unpack it would be something like
tar xvjf package.tar.gz

If you already have unpacked it, then there is likely a file named "configure" to which you would run the command ./configure

I possible, I'd recommend installing software via a package manager since your new to this game. Redhat based distros use .RPM and debian based use .DEB files. Yes, I did say earlier than file extensions don't matter, and that holds true but the extension is only there to identify it as a package, not to dicate which application opens the file.

I have installed Suse 10

So how do you complie the extacted file and where do you write command ./configure ???? This is what i have done so far: i have extracted the file to Home. I have been reading people post about writing these codes, but i don't know where i should write them.

SuSE has a great package manager designed to install things for you, called YaST.
This way, you don't need to do all this tarball stuff at all. It i strongly recommended that you look for the application you want via YaST first - then look for a "SuSE10 rpm" then look at installing from tarballs.

The SuSE site has tutorials and howtos for most stuff you want to do.

Anyhoo - after extracting the archive, there will be a single new directory right there. Use the cd command to enter the new directory: cd <directory-name> ... in that directory will be a load of files (ls to see them). At least one of them will be instructions (usually called "install") and another will be called "readme". Read these files.

There will almost always be a file here called "configure". This is a script program much like a DOS batch (*.BAT) file. Like a batch file, it is executable. If you enter ./configure in the same directory as this file, it will execute. (The ./ tells linux to look in the current directory.)

I have tried Yast, it worked with some programs. When i was opening others i ddin't see the choice of installing them with Yast. It just shows me list of folders and files. I don't get what you saying about cd command. Where do you exactyl write it?

Oh ... to find out about yast, type "man yast" in a terminal.

"man" is short for "manual" and can give you technical information quickly about anything installed on your system. Just type "man <some-name>" and if there is documentations it will show you.

There is also a GUI for YaST. I havn't checked, but I gather there is help in there.
You can use the GUI YaST to look for apps that you want to use or just to see what is possible.

and...
 

readme file for my program says:

Simply unpack the tarball and run (as root):

python setup.py install


I don't know where to write this thing.

"cd" means "change directory". It works like the command in DOS. You type it on a command line in the terminal.

Hmmm... you need a basic linux tutorial.
Here's a jump-start.

Do you know how to open a terminal? (Often you rt-click on the desktop and select "open terminal" or something that sounds like that.)

The terminal is the equivalent to the windows "DOS prompt" - only more powerful. The terminal commands should be thought of as "Linux Power Tools".

Open a terminal, you will see a prompt that looks like:Only it will be your name @ your computer's name. The "~" means you are in your home directory. The "$" means you are acting without special priviledges. This is like the "C:\ >" command prompt in DOS.

If you type anything now, it will appear after the $.

If you type "ls" then press enter, you will get a list of files that are in your home directory. They will be color coded - some are directories (folders). To change directory to one of the folders, you type "cd <foldername>" and press enter.

You'll see the prompt change - now it will read:In windows, the start of the file tree is C:\ and everything goes off that ... like C:\My Documents\My Music\ may be where you keep your mp3's. In linux, the different drives are not distinguished and we use forward-slashes instead of back-slashes. So the start of the file tree is just called "/" which we call "root". You're home directory will be /home/yourname, which is abbreviated to "~".

Look through the tutorials on LQ, and try:

Linux Virgins
IBM: glossary
IBM: technical FAQ
some articles

I don't have $ sign, i have > like in Windows )) Anyways, thanks a lot man, its a good start for me.

well this is even better.

In the same directory as the readme file, you should find a file called "setup.py"
This is a "python" script file. It is a set of instructions for a program called python (doh!) which will install the software.

You need to change to a root terminal. I don't know if SuSE has a special menue item for starting a root terminal (look for it in applications or system tools). But you can get there from a normal terminal. The command is "su".

cd into the same directory as the setup.py file.
enter "su"
enter your root password
(this changes the $ into a # to show you now have superuser ability.)
enter "python setup.py install"

However: you are really best to install the program you want using yast. What is this program called? I can probably get you a shortcut.

It gave me this: can't open file 'setup.by': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

The name of program is mp3togo, its a program making it possible to use a mp3 player with Linux. Otherwise it will not recognize my mp3 player.

Oh well - at least that didn't phase you. The rest of us get more info in our prompts.

Some useful commands:

apropos <name>
tells you about anything installed that has anything to do with "name".
try apropos mozilla and see...

this can be a good way to find out what commands do the thing you want.

man (you've seen I hope) gets information on how to use stuff

info same as man, only often more detailed.

grep <file> <text> (man grep) looks for <text> in <file> and spits out each line with a hit.

| called a "pipe" - directs the output of one command to the input of another.

Say you want to know how to change directory and you don't know about cd. Apropos only accepts one word.

apropos "change directory" reports "nothing appropriate"
apropos directory reports an enormous list scrolling past. How about:
apropos directory | grep change... you see cd at the top of the list, as well as other useful things you can change about directories. You need only "man cd" to find out how to use the command.

This is very common. Usually we install mpg123 or lame for mp3's. The existing media player you have will have a plugin for mp3 playing too. You should be able to install this in YaST ... lets see:

http://www.novell.com/products/suselinux/media.html
Novelle expect you to use banshee to play mp3's in SuSE 10. (Under Gnome) And Amarok under KDE.

You'll find them in the main menue under multi media.
If they won't play mp3 etc out of the box:

http://linux.wordpress.com/2005/10/07/hacking-opensuse/
... to teach you how to use YaST to make life simpler.

The big advantage of YaST is that it will install everything properly and keep track of when updates are available.