hi, im a complete newbie to the world of linux and i am trying to install the command make so that i can compile and run c++ programs. im running on suse 9.1. can anyone help??

Isn't make installed by default?

In Suse 9.1 it's not installed by default if you choose the preconfigured basic install with X. You have several options on how to install additional packages. For your problem the easiest way would be to just open a xterm (if your in X) and at the prompt type su ( this is for switch user, when used without a user name it will assume you want to be root ) it will ask for the root password. Once your root type "yast2 -i make" without the quotes. This will invoke yast and automatically install and usually will properly configure the packages you installed. Since you want to compile C++ programs you will need to install gcc also. Same as before "yast2 -i gcc" Yast resolves all the dependencies for you so it will install all the libraries you need. Make sure when your finished that you type exit in the xterm to go back to your normal user. When you new to Linux one of the most powerful features is that as a normal user you can play around with things and not worry about messing up your system. As root though, one mistake and it's time to reinstall (well, that's worse case of course) Hope that helps.

thanks for the help but that didnt work. when i type in "yast -i make" without the speach marks the shell returns "Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server" and then " Xlib: No protocol specified" what does that mean?

It means that the root user is not allowed to use the users screen.
To solve this you should do, as normal user:
xhost + localhost
as root do:
export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0

And you can run gui apps as sued root, in a graphical interface of this user.

But you can either download the make rpm package and install it. Its easier, i guess. This is a good rpm resource: rpm.pbone.net

i have done what the above post says and typed "yast -i make" in the console and this opened a blue installation window but then it disappeared after a second. i try typing "make" in the console and it says "bash: make: command not found" so i figured it didnt work. after that i tried to install the rpm (make-3.80-184.src.rpm) from the website you suggested and when i double click on it it gives a description of what it does and asks if you want to install it with yast. when i click on "install with yast" it asks for my password and once i have entered it, it opens yast and then it closes itself just like the previous way. any ideas? would switching to mandrake 10 solve this problem?

sorted it out now, tried a different rpm and now i think it is installed. cheers for all the help guys!

Instead of trying to run yast from the command line, try to open it from the kde menu, under "System".

The package you tried to install is a source package "make-3.80-184.src.rpm", as you can see by the .src. part. No problem with that, but after install you have to compile it, before you can use.

This is a nice precompiled binary rpm for suse 9.1:
http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat....i586.rpm.html

You can use kpackage also, from the right click menu, in konqueror. Just right click the package after download, and choose "Open with kpackage". yast is not the only choice.