I'm lost
 

Hello everyone I"m new to this site. Just to let you all know, I have been messing around with Linux here and there for a couple years now. However, I feel that I would like to make Red Hat Linux 8.0 my primary OS. I have successfully set up my system with all the drivers I needed. Some were prepackaged while others I had to download and install myself (which was hard for me). Now, I would like to play some video games (I'm a big game fan). So I downloaded ZDoom for Linux. In the readme for this version of Doom, it said I needed to install all this other crap. So I DLed and installed. Then the next step the readme said to do was edit the makefile and then run "make install". I know I've seen this "makefile" thing used in other programs but I never knew what it was or how to use it. OK now here is my question. What the heck is the makefile? Where is it? How do I edit it? And secondly, how do I make 'install' when there is no file that is named install in any of the primary Zdoom directories?

Thanks for your patience,
Tabre

A makefile is a file that is included by most source packages and tells the compiles what to compile and how to compile it(with what flags)
Most of the time the Makefile is working unless you have your binaries somewhere else.
If you must edit it i suggest you learn something about coding C since most C programs use Makefiles.

Maybe there is not much to edit about the makefile that came with ZDoom.. you should try just to make and make install it.
if it fails searchs on some coding forms or take a look at the makefile.

btw the makefile is a file called "Makefile" also with most software you need to run a ./configure to make a config file for the compiler.

Maybe you are in luck and ZDoom works out of the box :)

Good luck.

greets

Royss

The readme is literally telling you to go into the zdoom directory and type "make install" at the prompt. Try it. If it doesn't work, post the last few lines of output and the contents of Makefile.

To add some emphasis
 

I cannot stress enough how vitally important it is, for you system and for your sanity, that you make double-doggone sure you're in the right directory when you type "make" and/or "make install" especially if you have also bee installing other libraries in order to make this particular application work. Not realizing you're in the wrong directory for a while can result in your own hair coming out in large clumps at an accelerated pace while walking through the "make" process.

Thanks guys. I'll try your ideas and post the results.