I have just installed RedHat 8.0 and am dual booting with win98 as 2nd OS. Installation was easy enough but I have a lot to learn with RedHat (1st time user).

After downloading programs, how do you install them?

Can you create shortcuts on your desktop?

Thanks for your help!

There are a couple of ways to install programs... it depends on the type of package you get.

for rpm's (redhat package manager):

rpm -i <package>

for source packages (<package>.tar.gz or <package>.tar.bz2)

1) first you mus unpack the compressed package:

for *.tar.gz:
tar -zxvf <package>.tar.gz

for *.tar.bz2:
tar -jxvf <package>.tar.bz2

this will extract a lot of files into a directory, usually called something like <package>-<maybe a version number here> I'll call it package-x.x for demo.

cd packate-x.x
./configure
make
make install

that will install it. You can send a lot of options to ./configure. To see all you can do, type "./configure --help | less". some common ones are --prefix=<path> where <path> is /usr, /opt, or anything else. the default is /usr/local most of the time.

There are a lot of threads on this here... just do a search.

yes you can make shortcuts to your desktop.... search around for that with your window manager (kde, gnome, ect) as a keyword.

good luck

-Adam

hey gemcgrew :-)

i can help you alittle. All i know is 7.3 and i don't know alot about it.

first there are your files
tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2, rpm, src.rpm
for the tar you can do this
tar -zxvf <filename>.tar
for the tar.gz
tar -zxvf <filename>.tar.gz
then move to the dir you copied the file and and then
( sometimes a file need this )
./configure
then " make install "
if it don't need the ./configure
then just do the " make install "
then there is the tar.bz2 files
bzip2 tar -d <filename>.tar.bz2
then there is rpm
rpm -ivh ( for installing ) and -uvh ( for upgrading )
I think the v stand for ver something
and then the src.tar files
this is hard but is cool :-)
rpm --rebuild --target i686 ( if you got it {here are some others i386, i486, i586, athlon and smp }) <filename>.src.tar
then when the computer go crazy extacting all the files and doing what it does you have to look at the last couple of lines for the dir of where the src files are. then you move to that dir and type in rpm -uvh ( if you are upgrading ) -ivh ( you are installing ) <filename>.rpm . For mass install do this
( just using tar as a sample ) tar -zxvh <filename>.tar <filename>.tar <filename>.tar or it's ( because I'm on 7.3 and not 8.0 ) tar -zxvf <filename>.tar;<filename>.tar or <filename>.tar ; <filename>.tar you see :-)
this is all I know right now after 5 days of redhat 7.3.

P.S. stick with the tar.gz and tar.bz2 files if you can :-) they install easier.


oh yeah, almost forgot the the .gz file
gzip -d <filename>.gz

sorry :-D

Thanks for your help!
I am determined to learn this OS. It is a little overwhelming when you first attack it. Especially when you are not familiar with the commands.

definitly overwelming at first.... maybe always, but you get used to it :-)

If you really want to start to understand how the system works, get (somewhat) comfortable with what you've got, then try out either slackware or linux from scratch (LFS) www.linuxfromscratch.org . you have to do a lot of work yourself to get these to work the way you want, and in the process you end up learning a lot. Plus, when you're done, you have a custom system that has only what you want.... so it's fast, and there's nothing going on behind the scenes that you don't know about.

... just something to keep in mind

happy linuxing

-Adam