When I type ./configure or ./autogen.sh in the terminal I get an error message saying "bash: ./configure: No such file or directory"

I need to configure packages and things, can someone please help me with this?

I am using ubuntu 7.10

You mean you're trying to compile a package from source? It seems like there's no configure file in the directory you're currently in or that you haven't installed the build-essential package. sudo aptitude install build-essential

I did not have build-essential, but I just installed it and it still does not seem to work. Do I need to reboot the terminal or restart the comp?

No you shouldn't need to. What exactly are you trying to do? Can you post the output of ls for the directory you're trying to compile in?

This is what I am trying to do "./configure --enable-warnings --enable-glitz --disable-quartz --disable-atsui --disable-xcb --disable-win32 --disable-gtk-doc"

After untarring the package you must change to the
new directory containing the source files. Then
do ls | grep configure to see if the file is
present. I usually just do ls to look for
files such as INSTALL and README and check them out
before trying to configure and make a package. Some
packages have special requirements or "install.sh"
scripts.

This is what the install file says
"1) Configure the package

The first step in building cairo is to configure the package by
running the configure script. The configure script attempts to
automatically detect as much as possible about your system. So,
you should primarily just accept its defaults by running:

./configure

The configure script does accept a large number of options for
fine-tuning its behavior. See "./configure --help" for a complete
list. The most commonly used options are discussed here.

--prefix=PREFIX

This option specifies the directory under which the software
should be installed. By default configure will choose a
directory such as /usr/local. If you would like to install
cairo to some other location, pass the director to configure
with the --prefix option. For example:

./configure --prefix=/opt/cairo

would install cairo into the /opt/cairo directory. You could
also choose a prefix directory within your home directory if
you don't have write access to any system-wide directory."

I already extracted it and the folder is on my desktop

This is the ls output of the folder

"evan@evan-laptop:~$ ls /home/evan/Desktop/cairo-1.2.6
acinclude.m4 CODING_STYLE COPYING install-sh PORTING_GUIDE
aclocal.m4 compile COPYING-LGPL-2.1 ltmain.sh README
AUTHORS config.guess COPYING-MPL-1.1 Makefile.am RELEASING
BUGS config.h.in depcomp Makefile.in ROADMAP
ChangeLog config.sub doc missing src
ChangeLog.mk configure gtk-doc.make NEWS test
ChangeLog.pre-1.0 configure.in INSTALL pixman TODO"

So it looks like you just need to change to that directory, then ./configure should work fine (right now you're in the /home/evan/ directory). So cd /home/evan/Desktop/cairo-1.2.6, then run ./configure and see what happens.

You are absolutely right!
So what does cd do? takes you in the folder i am guessing?

Yes, cd mean "change directory". "./" mean run in this directory. So you had a terminal open in /home/evan/ and were trying to run the file "configure" from this directory. There was no file configure in /home/even/ because it was in /home/evan/Desktop/cairo-1.2.6/.

ok another problem, I am getting this now "evan@evan-laptop:~$ sudo cp /home/evan/Desktop/cairo-dock /opt
cp: omitting directory `/home/evan/Desktop/cairo-dock'"

But I am not gettig the folder in the /opt folder......

I need to install the cairo-dock
This is what is in it

evan@evan-laptop:~$ ls /home/evan/Desktop/cairo-dock
amarok.svg folder.svg mozilla-firefox.svg
azureus.svg gaim.svg music.svg
beagled.svg gconf-editor.svg ooo-calc.svg
cairo-dock gnome-audio.svg ooo-impress.svg
cairo-dock.c gnome-calculator.svg ooo-writer.svg
cairo-dock.c~ gnome-fs-home.svg search.svg
cairo-dock.copy1 gnome-gimp.svg start-cairo-dock.sh
chat.svg gnome-terminal.svg sticky-notes.svg
clock.svg gxine.svg stop.svg
computer.svg im.svg tango-colors.h
configure.scan lockscreen.svg terminal.svg
dc++.svg logout.svg user-home.svg
development.svg lowfat.svg user-trash-full.svg
editor.svg Makefile web-browser.svg
email.svg movies.svg xmms.svg

Dear Members:
I am trying to configure a package and the system tells me to install a compiler
and find the next error:

configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH

Every distribution packages are sources.

Then: How can I install the compiler without a compiler?

I can't see any executables

Do I have to install the gcc distribution?

Thanks in advance

A. de la Barra

Then download the [WWW] .deb files and install them by double-clicking on the downloaded file

I cannot just double-click on the files....I don't understand how to install this.