Installing tarball files
 

I recently downloaded the adobe flash player in tarball format. I have uncompressed using xvf. I read that I'm now supposed to use the ./configure command, but everytime I do, its says there's no such directory. Having just installed linux, I don't know why I don't have this. Help!

Hi, welcome to LQ!

And not all tarballs are source, flash most certainly isn't.

Depending on which version you grabbed, and what you need it
for, you'll have to "sudo cp /some/place/or/other"


Cheers,
Tink

I did the sudo cp command, which copied the file to another directory of my choosing. I extracted with tar xvf, which looked successful. However, when I use the ./configure command, the same error pops up. So such directory.

Maybe I'm making this more complicated than it needs to be?

Sorry, I wasn't quite clear enough. ./configure is only required
for source distributions, when you want (need?) to compile things.

Flash doesn't (shouldn't) come with a configure script.



Cheers,
Tink

So, I now have these uncompressed files. How do I install these?

Can you please post a list of the files you got here?

Distribution?
 

Most distributions provide a packaged version of libflashplayer.so. This is the best approach, (for instance, from the RHEL supplementary disk).

The tarball, however should be extracted directly to the / directory. /libflashplayer.so then needs to be moved to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/. This could be lib64 for 64-bit Firefox. Sometimes it easier to extract only the library into your $HOME/.mozilla/plugins/ directory.

If you are new to Linux and just want an (Up and Running Linux System) let your Package Manager install the Application for you. Do a web search Like ( Install Flash Player) along with the title of your Linux O.S. There are other Flash Players than Adobe for your information. Installing by NOT using your Package Manager is best left till you are comfortable with the other aspects of Linux first.

total 25324
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7043207 2011-12-18 17:56 install_flash_player_11_linux.x86_64.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 blund blund 18782360 2011-10-31 21:56 libflashplayer.so
drwxrwxr-x 5 blund blund 1024 2011-10-31 21:56 usr

linux12,
What distro are you using? If you are using Ubuntu, the easiest way to get flash (and just about everything else) is to use Ubuntu's package manager. Just open up the Ubuntu Software Center or Synaptic Package Manager and install the flashplugin-installer package. Then restart Firefox and you will have flash installed. This way Ubuntu's package manager will keep track of updates for flash for you.
Or to install flash from the terminal use apt-get:
If you are not using Ubuntu, then tell us what distro you are using. Most distros will have some type of package manager to install flash and other apps.

I've got Ubuntu, and I'm trying to learn some linux at the same time. I used to be a DOS nerd, but that was many moons ago. Your apt trick worked...thanks you very much!

Synaptic Package Manager
 

I seem to recall you can simply right click the tar ball and open with Synaptic if you have it and it does all the work for you. Or maybe that was a dream I had. Its been a while since I did that.

The Adobe Flash tarball contains a file called libflashplayer.so. As root, copy that to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins if it is present or to the appropriate plugins directory if it is not.

If /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins does exist, most other browsers on Linux will look in it to find plugins.

try Slackware.

Here is a great site for getting started with Ubuntu: http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/index.php
And here is a great beginners tutorial on basic linux commands that I learned from when I first started using linux: http://linuxcommand.org/learning_the_shell.php
For a brief apt-get and dpkg tutorial see this: http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2005/1...r-for-new.html
For more details, just read the apt-get manual by typing man apt-get in the terminal. You will get something like this: http://linux.die.net/man/8/apt-get
Write back if you need more help.