Hey guys Im kind of desperated here... You see, Ive tried some distro (suse, FC, Ubuntu) and sometimes the make command works, but most of the time, when I try to compile a program (I think this is what it does right?) it just returns an error: Command not found. This applies to all the program I try to install. Im lost deep into the forest here.

Im currently using mandriva 2006.0, but it doesnt matter as I said, it NEVER works. Any help? Because from the README of every program, it seems SOOOOOO easy for them. It just tells you to write that, like it should work and I feel Im the only one on earth to whom it happens... Thanks very much!

You run ./configure and make as a regular user, and make install as root

The next time you experience problems with make, just post the errors here and someone will help you out. It can be difficult to grasp software installation from source, but its easy once you know exactly how to fix the errors printed after the installation has failed.

My guess is that some distros don't install compile tools by default. Or did you mean that sometimes it works on the same distro?

'command not found' isn't a make error, it means make isn't on your system. I'm betting that every time you install a distro you don't install the development tools because you think "I'm not gonna do any development"...well you need the development tools to compile anything

Ubuntu, by the way, doesn't give you the choice, you'd have to run synaptic and choose to install it all that way.

Komakino has it right.... It's not a make error that I get, it really is just "command not found"... nothing more. My bet is that I didnt install the devel tools, but I didnt choose anything since Im runnig a beta version of Mandriva. Can this be the problem? And if so, how do I fix this? Because I mean, I dont mind if it doesnt work right now, Im waiting for suse 10.1 to come out, but I think this is stupid since its a beta, and you need to test things out.... Like Id give you a car to road test, but without wheels....Am I missing something?

Thanks guys, you dont have any idea how I respect you, knowing every bits of Linux info on the tips of your fingers!

Mandriva always ships with devel tools regardless of whether you are running stable or unstable versions. If you need to install the development packages, start the Mandriva Control Center -> Software Installation and search for the packages you need.

can you tell me what's the name of the package that I have to install to enable the make feature? I searched for make and developpement and didnt find nothing. Thanks!!

If you installed from an official Mandriva disc set, you should find make by searching in the list of installable software from the Mandriva Control Center. You can also just do "urpmi make" from the command line.

Grrrr... It doesnt work my friend... Here's a screenshot, maybe I did something wrong... It doesnt find any "make" program, neither in description.

http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.ph...=snapshot1.png

Did you install from an official Mandriva disc set? Also what are the results of running

This is the output of the thing you asked me (What is it for actually?)

And I installed it using the Official Mandriva 2006.0 disc. But it makes me think, and if it's right you'll want to kill me, I only downloaded 1 cd....

Thats the problem. The official disc set consists of 3 discs or 1 DVD. You have two options, you can download the remaining two discs and add them to your urpmi sources or go to easyurpmi and add the main, contrib, plf and updates repos. After thats all setup you have access to the whole Mandriva distribution and you can install the missing packages using urpmi or the software tool in the Mandriva Control Center.

Ok so it means Im really stupid, but at least that's not entirely my fault as I hadnt seen other cds!

This is why I was able on some distro and not on others. This clears things up. Thanks VERY much reddazz