Installing program in SUSE
 

I'm new to linux and I've recently installed SUSE on my machine. I realise there is the YAST software for installing programs, but how do you install programs outside of that? It doesn't seem to be as easy as the double click and follow instructions way of windows. Any pointers would be appreciated.

welcome to LQ.

it depends what kind of file it is you're trying to install from. with rpms, it's usually just

rpm -i filename.rpm

then there's .tar.gz files, that you decompress with

tar xvvzf filename.tar.gz

then you read the README and INSTALL files in the new directory created from decompressing - they're pretty straightforward. if you have a specific program you're having trouble installing, feel free to ask about it.

I was trying to install Mozilla Firefox , which is a tar.gz file. So do i need to run a command?

did you type this: tar xvzf firefoxblah.tar.gz

that will unpack the tarball - meaning all the files in that archive will be expanded and put into a directory tree. once you've done that then there should be a README file there. read it. it will tell you what you need to do.

So i just go to run and type that?

no, you need to go to a terminal. if you're in kde, there should be a terminal or "konsole" icon somewhere, maybe on the taskbar or under "system." make sure you are in the directory where the file is by typing "ls". it should display the firefox .tar.gz file you downloadeda long with any other files in that directory. then execute the command to untar it. then, it'll probably create a "firefox-installer" directory. do "cd firefox-installer" and then "./firefox-installer" or whatever the name of the executable is in there.

actually that wont work :( , mozilla's firefox has a registry problem that is only brought on by SuSE, go to ftp.suse.com and in the project folder is a mozillafirefox RPM that you can download. once it's downloaded just click on the icon and YaST will do the rest

I spent a few hours screwing around with mozilla and firefox to just in the end settle for an older RPM'd version. If you google this registry/firefox thing you'll see proper documentation

heres the link, it looks like they updated to firefox 1.0 YAAHH!!!!
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/mozi...0-6.7.i586.rpm

Cheers :)