Hello, I'm Ben.

I'm having a bit of trouble installing programs with linux, I have used windows forever and this is my first time using linux, I'm using KDE.

Anyway, its just a basic program 'Dragons Era', but i cant seem to install it at all, after downloading it. That or ANY program for that matter.

I can find the download once I've downloaded it, but cant install, I'm completely in the dark.


IF anyone could help me, it would be greatly appreciated!


-Ben

First what distribution are you using ? e.g. Mandrake , fedora , suse , ...........

the easiest way to install software is to use its package manager and set it up so that it could download and install software from remote repositories

and read the INSTALL and README files thats included in the software that you've downloaded , but for installing source software its usually extracting it to a folder then open the terminal and CD to that directory (e.g: cd /home/user/.. ) then type :

./configure
make
su
<your root password>
make install

Well it is a little bit different than windows but nothing that I am sure you can't handle. For starters, check the format of the download. Is it an archive, if yes, what kind? Some examples:
.tar
.gz
.bz2

*when in the console, DO NOT type the quotes*

*a nice feature to have is the auto-complete in the console, so instead of typing out that whole filename (some can be huge) just type the first bit and then hit the TAB button and if the file exists and has no others like it, it will finish the name for you*


If yes, you need to extract this first.

For tar type at the console:

tar -xvf "name of file"

For gz type:

gunzip "name of file"

For bz2 type:

bunzip "name of file"

Sometimes a file will end in something along the lines of .tar.gz . Now with this you just want to start at the right-most file type (for this example, .gz) and extract that one first. Than move to the next one (.tar). Now there are some commands that can combine the two, but for now you should get the basics.

Now once you have the file unpacked and in a directory, cd into that directory. At the console type

cd "name of directory"

Now once in the directory you are gonig to want to look for a few things, so go ahead and type:

ls

Mainly you are looking for something that says "configure" or a file ending in .sh . If there is a file that is .sh, then you are going to type

sh "name of file"

But for the most part, if you are extracting the file and working to install it from the directory, it is going to have to be configured. This is done by executing these commands:

./configure (watch the text fly by, and when that is done type the next command)
make (same, watch the text, and when it finishes type the next command)
make install


After this is all done, there should be an executable file now created in the directory. So just go ahead and type ./"name of program" and you should be on your way.



For RPM files.

Now this is actually very easy to do. At the console simply type:

rpm -Uhv "name of rpm file"

and you are on your way.

-onelung

EDIT
There are other ways to install, other types, etc. This is just for you seeing as how you are just getting started. If there is a specific file type or specific question regarding a certain install, post and I or many others will gladly help you through it with ease.

All right, so I am super slow at this LInux thing, but I found out the file extention is 'gz'. I'm in my tar:/root/ directory right now, and am stuck

Please help

I don't know where a direcory like "tar:/root/" directory could come from but anyway, you should be in the same directory as your archive is (/home/ben/Programs for example). Then type (without quotes) 'tar -xzvf archive_name.tar.gz' and press Enter. You'll see a few lines (or a few more if the archive is bigger) scrolling down the screen and after that, if you type 'ls' you should see among the listing a directory with the same name as the original archive but without the '.tar.gz' part. Type 'cd archive_name_directory' to go into that directory, type 'ls' again and most probably you'll find a README or INSTALL file (or both). Read them and follow the instructions.

How you install software depends greatly on what distribution of Linux your are using. If it's a Debian based distro you should use apt or the apt package manager like synaptic.

What distro are you using?

I'm not quite sure if you can install gzipped files with apt-get (or any other package manager).