This has probably been asked before...
 

I download tr.gz files. Now, I'm new, but I'm not an idiot... I searched around and found out that I install them from the command line with - tar zxvf program-0.0.0.tr.gz in the /usr/src.
It does it's thing, and poof, back to the command line. The first application I tried, came back and told me that I didn't have the "Qt moc" and that I needed to install it. I have absolutely no idea what it is. So I downloaded another app. Did the tar command, worked. Did the make command and poof, back to a prompt, but then it gave me an error and would let me use the make install command. Is it the files or is it the way I'm doing things?

if you think "This has probably been asked before..." then why haven't you searched the site to prove yourself wrong or right? if it says it can't find moc, which is related to the kde deskto environment, then as root try running "urpmi moc" and it should install the package that contains it. if it's already instaled, then you should be able to tell this app where it is (look at ./configure --help)

but generally, without a useful error message, it's unliekyl you'll be able to get comprehensive help .

See kewpie, that's the thing, I have searched around!
I understand that you get annoyed by questions from newbies, but I did my friggin research and I couldn't find it. I thought that was the point in this forum, was when you didn't know what else to do, you ask for help? I managed to get my ADSL modem working on my own, because I did my research. I always see if I can do it myself before I ask for help.

well if you can't find any info around, sound a little more confident in your titles! :)

Don't sweat it Terminal...i checked few postings by acid, and apparently he just talks like that most of the time...now i don't really know the answers to your questions since i am newb and only started using linux 3 days ago..then why am i posting u ask?? well now you see here's the thing..................

As for the installing from source, you're part way there. I noticed you didn't include the "./configure" step.

Download the source.
Unpack it: tar xvzf <package name>.tar.gz
Use SHIFT=PgUp if it scrolls too far down to see.
Now you want to find where it unpacked the file. It's usually to a new directory within the current directory. For instance, say you've downloaded TARBALL.tar.gz to your /home/TerminalPhreak directory. So, in command line, you'd want to get to the /home/TerminalFreak directory.

Now:

tar xvzf TARBALL.tar.gz

It should have (but not necessarily) unpacked it to /home/TerminalPhreak/TARBALL. So you need to cd to the TARBALL directory. Once you're here, do an ls to list the contents of the newly installed directory. You should see at least one README or INSTALL or something similar. Read it thoroughly to make sure you get the next few steps right--it may state that there's certain arguments you need to pass at the ./configure step. You can read it with less README where README is the name of the file.

After that, while in /home/TerminalPhreak/TARBALL, you want to run

./configure <and any arguments you need to pass according to the README>

After it's done doing it's thing (there's usually some file like "config.log" located in the same directory you're in at this point that will show any failures), you will get to another bash prompt. You need to type the following now:

make

This will take a considerable amount of time. After it's done, it will bring you to yet another bash prompt. At this point type:

make install

Once you get to another bash prompt, the process is over. As for the "Qt moc" thing, I have no idea. I've never heard of the file. Try doing a search on www.google.com/linux (google's search engine for linux stuff only) with the error message. You'll probably get lots of hits and hopefully at least one of them will have the solution. Hope this helps.:D

The cool thing about error messages you get during a "make" or "./configure" is that they will invariably hint at what file or package is not yet installed. 90% of the time with error messages I get, I can query Google with it and find a solution.

If you think you have a brand new problem with linux, forget it. It's all been done. Don't be afraid to ask, but don't be afraid to use -Search- feature on this forum. Acid knows his stuff but is a young guy short on patience (i guess i dont blame him--how would you like it if your forum got full of "how do i untar and unzip a .tar.gz file"?) but I digress.

If you will check the web pages that show up in the query on Google there will be tons of ideas on how to fix the errors.

also, after you extract a file into your /usr/src....there is most always a INSTALL file, so you do less INSTALL....then it will say how to install because not all files install with ./configure, make, make install.

Alright, here's the deal... I want giFT, so I downloaded it. After it was finished downloading, this is what I did:
-I moved the file to /usr/src
-I used the ./configure command
-I typed tar zxvf giFT-0.5.6.tar.gz
(It did it's thing)
-I typed make
(It did it's thing)
-I typed make install
(It did something)
-I typed INSTALL
(It opened the install and gave me a bunch of questions)
-I didn't quite understand all of the questions, but I took the advice that it gave me and filled it out.
-I tried to run the program, and it said I needed to edit the files by hand, or I needed to run the install because it was not installed properly... I don't know what to do, I've filled out the install with different answers and it's the same.

You are close, it seems as though you've got a step out of order. I'll post exactly your post, but with the steps in order and add a step. I'll put a # sign infront of the changed steps:

Try it again, using the steps above--they should work. Also, do this as root. Hope this helps.:D

It's doing the same thing...

I was browsing giFT's files, and I found one that says this:
#! /bin/sh

# giFT - temporary wrapper script for .libs/giFT
# Generated by ltmain.sh - GNU libtool 1.4.2 (1.922.2.53 2001/09/11 03:18:52)
#
# The giFT program cannot be directly executed until all the libtool
# libraries that it depends on are installed.
#
# This wrapper script should never be moved out of the build directory.
# If it is, it will not operate correctly.

# Sed substitution that helps us do robust quoting. It backslashifies
# metacharacters that are still active within double-quoted strings.
Xsed='sed -e 1s/^X//'
sed_quote_subst='s/\([\\`\\"$\\\\]\)/\\\1/g'

# The HP-UX ksh and POSIX shell print the target directory to stdout
# if CDPATH is set.
if test "${CDPATH+set}" = set; then CDPATH=:; export CDPATH; fi

I've never used giFT, but I did a search on www.google.com/linux for giFT and found the freshmeat.net website which shows all the dependancies needed for giFT:

Dependencies:
GTK+ 1.2.6 (required)
PHP 4.1.0 (required)
PHP-GTK 0.1.1 (required)

Do you already have these installed? If not, you can download them from the freshmeat link above and install them. After those are installed, you'll probably need to recompile your giFT. This is kind of tedious I know, but it looks like you'll need these to get started. You can get them in RPM format or as tar.gz. Hopefully this helps some.:D

Those files on freshmeat don't work, they say that the php-gtk file no longer works with giFT

Did they provide any other suggestions for installation or files to substitute? I would presume that if the php-gtk file no longer works there would be something else in its stead--or else it is just no longer required.

Hopefully someone who has giFT installed and working will be better able to help you out here.