This is going to be LONG !!

Background:

Weeks ago I installed RH 8.0 [with early ver. Mozilla 1.0.1] as a dual boot with Win98SE. Now I am trying to learn the commands using the terminal window but the sheer number of directory/files still has me overwhelmed. In other words, I can use RH for 'net surfing and Email but not much more.

On Win98SE I have Mozilla 1.3.1 where I have built up a library of bookmarks. Some how, I don't remember exactly, [OldBob = 72 years old] I "exported" the bookmarks onto a floppy and managed to install them in RH's Mozilla 1.0.1. So Mozilla [plus Galeon & Konquerer] are "useable".

I also used Win98SE to download a copy of Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 [Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 -i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar] on to a CD-R. I still don't know how to download DIRECTLY into Red Hat. I am still much more proficient with Windows.

FINALLY !! To my question:

1) I have no idea where the old Mozilla [1.0.1] is presently installed.

2) I have no idea HOW or WHERE to install Firebird from the CD to a directory/file.

In other words, How [step by step] do I install Firebird ???

Ive been using linux for a few months now, and Im still not sure where to put things! In windows you just installed stuff either by putting them in say c:\program files\whereever or with the installer (which nearly always put it in c:\progfiles\wherever aswell)

Where should stuff go in Linux? where do people usually put stuff? I dont know!

I download everything to /usr/local/src (into some dirs I made there) and I install everything in a bunch of directories I made under /usr/local like so:

/usr/local/browsers/ <-where I put all my browsers
/usr/local/network/ <-network apps, nmap, gnutella etc
/usr/local/audio/ <-ardour etc
/usr/local/games/ <-quake etc...

Everything seems to be working good - but I mostly download the .tar.gz files - I dont really know where things go if you use the RPM's.

For Firebird, for example, I downloaded it to /usr/local/src/browsers then I changed directories to /usr/local/browsers and did:

tar xvf MozillaFirebird0.6.1-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar

the tar program makes a dir "MozillaFirebird" in the directory I am in (/usr/local/src/browsers) - thats all for installing firebird! Just run MozillaFirebird. (if it's not in your PATH then you need to do the full path to it: /usr/local/browsers/MozillaFirebird/MozillaFirebird - I just put this link in the panel.

ANyhoo - thats what I do. Its probably wrong, and I truly do wonder where is the best place to install apps. Anyone?

P.S - Firebird ROCKS! Once you use it, you will never use Mozilla or IE again!

nmoog,

Thanks for response.

I am still at stage trying to learn commands [pwd, su, touch, cp....]

I suspect Linux is "easier" then I know, but I'm just afraid to try anything YET !!

Red Hat/Mozilla allows me to surf 'net and I don't want to lose that.

Nah, you wont lose Mozilla - MozillaFirebird installs in its own directory, you can run them both no worries. Its kind of like the old windows days when you installed a program in a directory, then to uninstall just deleted that directory. For Firebird anyway (even the Windows version of Firebird just uninstalls into one directory) I dont know what RPM's do but.

I'm starting to suspect that Linux is harder than I imagined! But once we learn it, we will be GODS!

nmoog,

When I say "easier" the commands appear to be very obvious and direct, I just have to get up the courage to try them !

I already have and use Konqueror + Galeon & Mozilla, so adding Firebird will be no problem.

The "problems" I do see is getting Firebird from the CD-R into /usr/local [I agree with you, this is where it should go /usr/local/browser].

I still haven't figured out/tried to "download" directly into RH.

The second problem might be putting a Firebird icon on the desktop. [If Firebird doesn't do this automatically when it installs].

One project I would to do is "clean-up", add/remove icons from Gnome desktop. This is just one of the "many things" I don't know how to do.

Thanks for your interest and help.

nmoog,

Just getting back to my "learning Linux".

I "literally copied" what you gave me in your previous posting.

root@localhost browser]# tar xvf MozillaFirebird-0.7-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.gz
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
[root@localhost browser]#

As you can see it didn't work and I have no idea what "contains obsolescent base-64 headers" means ???

This was "suppose" to be the latest version of Firebird and I did manage to download it into /usr/local/browser.

I have "no idea" where to go from here !! And am open to all suggestion/help.

Hi OldBob -

did you try unzipping the tar first? in a console (or "terminal") try:

gunzip <filename>

then

tar xvf <filename>

you can type "man gunzip" and "man tar" to learn more about those commands.

as for "downloading" - do you mean just copying the file from the cd to your hard drive?

to create icons - did you try clicking the right mouse button on the desktop background?

check back and let us know how it goes

Genesee,

As you can see from this string I am just "copying commands" with out knowing what I am doing. I see both "tar xvf" and "tar -xzvf" and don't know the difference.

As you can probably tell, I did not try "unzipping" Firebird before I ran "tar xvf". I will try the additional commands you gave me a see what happens.

What I really need is a "simple tutorial" on downloading, unzipping and installing programs. I am still learning commands like [pwd, ls, mv, cp ......].

Stand by for future results.

here are some links that may help.

http://www.google.com/linux
http://www.linux.org/
http://linux.ctyme.com/
http://sourceforge.net/
http://www.onlamp.com/linux/cmd/
(i found this thru a forum search here at linux general)

good luck.

Actually, the -z tag is for a *tar.gz (a g-zipped tarred file, or 'tarball')

So if the file you downloaded ends in .tar.gz then you had it right. like this

tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz

then it will unzip everything into a new directory that is usually named after the original filename (or a close derivative of it).

Then you cd to that directory and in the case of firebird, you don't need to compile it, so you can simply run it from there.

./MozillaFirebird
(the ./ is just a way to designate the current working directory rather than typing the whole thing out.

In the future when running it, or if you want to create an icon on your desktop that links to it, you'll have to use the entire path to the program /usr/local/browser/firebird directory/MozillaFirebird
(the italicized "firebird directory" is whatever folder it created when you unzipped everything)

hope that helps

Installing a program from a tarball usually involves 5 steps.

First uncompress and extract the source files using the tar -xzvf <filename> command for *.tar.gz files ( sometimes the extension *.tgz is used instead). A subdirectory will be created. Cd into this directory.

Second, look for a README or INSTALL file. It will contain instructions you should follow to build and install the program.

Assuming that the usual convention is being followed, the next step is to enter ./configure.
This step executes a script which checks if you have the gcc compiler installed, and have the correct libraries installed. If this step fails, you may need to install items using your distro's install program, or from the net.

Next enter ./make
This will compile the source files and produce the program(s) and libraries needed.

The last step ./make install will copy files into the expected directories. You may need to su to root to be able to install them.

Again, you want to read the README files because the program you are installing may be different.

If you are missing needed libraries, you might just need to install them from your distro's cd. This works best, because version conflict problems are less likely. Having older distro's can sometimes cause problems.

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About your first comment having problems downloading in linux, sounds like you need to read the manpage for the chmod command. You can't write to any directory like you can in windows 98. Windows XP is the same way now. I have a subdirectory in my home directory called downloads were all downloads go. After you finish installing an application from the tarballed file, you can usually delete the directory created, if the program is installed to a system directory such as /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin.

I hope you don't mind such a long response, and hope it helped. Good luck and lots of fun learning Linux!