Hey guys first i like to say that im a beginner when it comes to linux i used to have windows XP. Anyways i was just wondering how to unzip .zip or .rar files??

to open a rar file i had to download winrar http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
that should open zip files aswell

thanks for the quick respones, i just finish d/l winrar..but it says something like " the file could not be opened because the assosiacted application does not exists. Change the associate in youre preference"

go into the command like and type tar -xvzf filename.tar.gz and that will extract it then do ls then cd into the folder and type make then su root and enter you're password then type make install and you should be able to open a rar extension now

WOW! im soo lost..i have no idea what you have said im totally new to linux..???

i opened the file /tmp/rarlinux-3.5.b1.tar-5.gz.............

did you extract it ? i don't know what distro you're on so i'm not sure where your konsole or terminal is

To unzip a .zip file, open a terminal, cd to the directory where your .zip file is and type

ohh yah BTW im using Xandros....still dont know how to do it

When a file has a .tar.gz extension it means that there are several files inside that and that they are compressed. You have to extract it as your first step. That is done with the tar command. You can type "man tar" so that you can read the options for tar. ScOpe has already told you which options you need for a .tar.gz, so you can type it in directly without checking the options.

You should now have a folder, in the same directory where you had the .tar.gz. That's why you use the ls command, so that you can see your new extracted folder. Get into that directory using the cd command, it should be something like "cd rarlinux-3.5.b1". When you are in that folder type "ls". You should see a file called INSTALL or something like that. To see it you need to use a text editor. People who know about linux use vim, I am a newbie so use nano, which everyone tells me that sucks, but that's what I am used to. I plan to change that when I have the time. So you should do something like "nano INSTALL", or "vim INSTALL". You should see instructions there on how to proceed. They usually are something like run configure, make, make install. So there should be a file on the folder that says configure and is a binary. If there is, type "./configure". If this runs without problems, you will then type "make". This is where you are compiling the source code in your machine.

After you are done compiling (you should not have any errors here, otherwise the next step won't work), you need to install it. For this you need root privileges. Type "su" press enter, then type your root password. Then type "make install". You are done installing the program.

When you want to decompress rar files, you will have to use the command "unrar --options filename.rar". Use "man unrar" to see which options you need for it to work.

This is the same explanation that ScOpe gave to you, but maybe now with a bigger explanation, which I am not 100% sure it will work for you, you can give it a try.

If your in kde just use ark. In gnome file-roller. You need the programs unzip unrar installed. There most likely in your distros software repository.

I wonder wonder.
What is it exactly that you still don't know how to do?
You first asked how to uncompress .zip and .rar files.
In order to do that, you'll need to use a terminal and to type commands. Do you know how to do that?
If not, do it this way:
On your desktop, there should be at the bottom-left corner a button called "Launch" or "Start" or something similar. Click on this button, and browse the menu and sub-menues until you find a "Terminal" or a "console".
Then, if you do not know how to use a terminal, I suggest you take a look at page http://linux.org.mt/article/terminal and in particular at section http://linux.org.mt/article/terminal#N100C3.
Does that help you a little?