I've been trying to install Wine on my RedHat 9 system. Note, everything that I am doing is taking place while logged in as root.

First attempt had a problem with not finding libglut.so.3. I was directed to rpmfind.net to download this file. Which I did.

Then I had trouble activating the rpm for this file. I was given help with that, and it installed.

Next, I activate the wine rpm I downloaded from winehq. It goes a little farther this time and then stops to ask for CD2 from RedHat3. I find what I think is CD2 (I have one labeled CD2 and several labeled CD2 of 4, or 3, or 4). I put in the CD. And nothing happens, except the same question comes up. I run through all my CD 2's and still nothing. I press the cancel button, and everything seems to close OK.

Later, just for thrills, I try again. This time when I activate the wine rpm file I am told that "the package "wine" is already installed." How did that happen?

Of course it won't run, and I have no idea where it is. I've tried to uninstall wine to start fresh, but none of the uninstall sugestions I've found on this site do anything.

According to the manual, I should now have a folder named ./tools, and I should run ./tools/wineinstall to configure wine. I don't have that directory, and of course nothing happens when I enter that command. The only thing that I've found that is new is a folder called /etc/wine. That wine folder contains a text file called config. Otherwise the folder is empty.

So, what do I do now? Any suggestions would be very appreciated.

Don't use Redhat
I would use Slackware Linux.

How would that correct my problem with wine?

Well...I'm not quite sure it would . But I used Red Hat about 2 years ago and then switched to Slackware about 1.5 years ago. I have had nothing but good luck getting things to work with Slackware. Also Slackware is super quick. It runs SO MUCH faster than Red Hat. So many more things work on Slackware than did on Redhat. Also I actually feel like I'm learning something!
Slackware also makes packages analogous to RPMs. These are called .tgz files. They are awesome. Easy to install and you can get them directly from Linuxpackages.net or slackware.com (the latter preferred way).
You just run at the prompt: installpkg filename.tgz
and watch the magic happen.
I just installed Wine yesterday using a .tgz file. It was super quick and worked like a charm. I haven't tried many programs. I tried ITunes and that doesn't work, but I expected this. But another program worked called Fracas (which is kind of like Risk).
I think that Slackware packages are just superior to RPMs. Also the community is great. If I were you I would direct my Wine questions to this also....

Use an IRC client.

IRC@Freenode.net
channel #WineHQ or Cedera (sp?)

I'm sure they can help you with your questions too (if they answer you, they're gurus and developers). If you haven't checked this out you really should because they when they do reply the provide immediate feedback and help for your questions. Also if you're interested in slackware.

IRC@OFTC.net
channel #slackware

Enjoy and Good Luck

You shouldn't really do any of that as root, just as s normal user. You'll need root priviledges for soma actions, but that's possible aslo from a normal user account.

Even after succesfully installing wine it won't 'run'. you'll need winetools or something similar to set up a .wine directory in your /home/user folder which will aslo allow you to install some basic apps with wine