I first downloaded the mySQL on http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/M...ftp.mysql.com/ (http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.1.html#downloads to be particular)

after installing it I started to try to configure the program I need to configure and make sql with.

after typing
it returned to me
so.. I tried the other way of doing it
and in the process it said

AFAIK, this server OS is: Linux 86x_64
...

did I installed a wrong version of mySQL?
should I download mysql-devel / mysql library?
where can I download a mysql-devel with a .tar.gz format?

What Distro?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution

sorry for being a noob but, how can I know it using SHELL commands ?

First to go the mysql folder/directory source and run:

shell> make distclean
shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --sysconfdir=/etc --with-machine-type --with-system-type --with-mysqld-user=mysql --without-docs --with-big-tables --without-man --with-unix-socket-path=/tmp/mysql.sock --without-debug --with-low-memory --with-atomic-ops=smp --with-system-type --with-machine-type --with-ssl --with-plugins=myisam,myisammrg,heap,federated,csv,archive,partition,innobase
shell> make
shell> make install

this should work very well, I am using this on CentOS 5 (i386) and (x86_64). So good luck!

this is using the "source tarball" available on the dev.mysql site right ?

does your configure statement already includes the libraries of mysql-devel ? Coz' I think that's my problem.

Yes this is using the source. When u use the source you dont have mysql-devel, it will install it as its the whole source of mysql.