Newbie help
 

Hi people, I am a :newbie: 2 Mandy Linux, and I need to get some kind of tutorial that can tell me how to update, download and install things on my system. If someonec ould get me somthing like that, that would be very awsome.


Thank you
~Kyle

It depends how you want to do it. I use a terminal. It is quite simple.

Open a terminal and remove the old media (the 3 CDs), unless you want stuff that you did not install originally:

su
urpmi.removemedia -a

Then add some new sources, you can get these from the mandrake site from the list of mirrors. Sometimes you need to try a few to get one you are happy with. Note the 3 typeshere, you can call them whatever you want, it i just used in udating and specifying a specific source (usually not needed unless you span releases)...

urpmi.addmedia main ftp://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/Mandrak.../Mandrake/RPMS with ../base/hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/Mandrak...l/contrib/i586 with ../../cooker/i586/Mandrake/base/hdlist2.cz
urpmi.addmedia plf ftp://knight.zarb.org/pub/plf/mandrake/cooker with hdlist.cz

Now you can add packages as you like. For example, to add firefox...

urpmi mozilla-firefox

And it is getting it for you.

On the other hand, you can just go to control centre->Software Management and do it all from there. Media manager does stuff like the urpmi.removemedia and urpmi.addmedia above, the rest are self explanatory.

blah nevermind... i read this post wrong :D

Great post colnago. Colnago just pointed the "easy" installing and updating for linux. The truth is although you might get a lot of stuff like that, you'll eventually come along a tar file.
Tar files are compressed files (tar stands for tape archive in the Unix universe) and they usually contain the source of the program or library you want to install. BTW, the sources are the actual files containing the code in C/C++/Perl/Python/etc etc.

Enough history :)... once you get the tarfile you need to uncompress it! If you're using a graphical environment, you should then have a program called "Ark" or "File Roller" (I have those in Mandrake 9.2), so right click the file and select Actions -> Extract Here or Ark. Both will show then a program similar to Winzip and there you can extract the files to a directory (~/tmp for example). Using the console, type tar xvzf <file.tar>.

Assuming you now have the file uncompressed in the tmp directory, the FIRST thing you should do is READ, not just browse the README, INSTALL, BUILD, COMPILE, etc file in there. Usually there is pretty useful info such as ./configure flags, system specific compilation flags, variables, definitions, etc... trust me, it'll save you headaches :)

Usually you're required 3 commands which you probably have seen in linux forums or elsewhere related:
./configure checks that you have the required libraries and sets compilation options
make actually builds the binary files (executables) from the sources
make install installs the recently compiled binaries

So theoretically you just:
1) open a konsole
2) go to the folder if you're not there hehe
*)Tip if using konqueror file manager: once you're in the folder press ctrl+t and you'll get a konsole right in the folder you currently are ;)
3) log in as superuser aka root by typing su and then the root password
4) type ./configure
5) type make
6) type make install

Troubleshooting: Of course sometimes you'll run into troubles, especially at the ./configure part because of dependencies. Dependency problems occur when a program was built using previously written libraries that the system doesn't have installed so obviously they aren't available. If this case the ./configure command will print out something like:
libexample >= 0.2.0 required or something similar (but you get the idea).
In this case you'll have to install those libraries prior to installing the software that needs them. You should look first at the resources you have available at hand (installations cd's for example), urpmi or search the web for them.
I find it very important to note in this part that you need the libraries that read devel, not just the "normal" ones. For example: you know you have libA installed but when you tried the ./configure it tells you it can't find libA. This is caused because the libraries installed are available to use at runtime but not for compiling which is what we need in this case. So get the package (usually an RPM) that is the same version as the one you have installed but reads devel inside it's name and that should solve that kind of problem.

Here's the way to check which versions you have (and install new ones) using Mandrake 9.2. BTW, I'll try to stick to the graphical interface so it's more "user friendly" although a bit longer.
1) You got the error that you need libA in the ./configure
2) Go to Kde menu/configuration/packages/remove software, in the search box type the name of the library you need. In this case Search: libA
3a) You got a name: libA-0.2.0mdk
This means that you have the regular version of the library installed but still need the devel version.
3b) You didn't get any search results!
Well, you need to install the normal and the devel versions of the library.
4) Go to Kde menu/configuration/packages/install software. In the search box type the name of the library you need. In this case Search: libA
5a) You got some search results. Check the libA-0.2.0mdk and libA-devel-0.2.0mdk and click Install. You're set!
5b) You didn't get any results!
That means that the sources you're looking into don't have the library you need. I suggest you go to www.rpmseek.com or browse the web for the libraries you need and remember the devel requirement.

Wow, the post grew a bit longer that I thought it would hahaha, anyway post again if you need some more help or didn't understand something. Hope it helps :)

@Redeye2
Thanks a lot for that, helped a BUNCH, ill let you know if I need any mroe help, you sound like the right person to go to for that :D

Is there any p2p programs I can use to download music on Linux? and...what shoudl I use to listen to the music? I do not have any sound, or a music play (e.g XMMS)

@colnago
Thank you, I have removed my old media and am working on getting new media.

To get XMMS installed, go to kde menu/configuration/packaging/install software and type xmms on the search box. You should get a few matches, read about them and install them also. You should get and icon for XMMS under kde menu/multimedia/sound.
As for P2P goes, I got kazaa working under wine which is a windows emulator for Linux. Here's a link that might help http://home.wanadoo.nl/raschouten/. BTW, any linux kazaa programs are fake so don't download them.

I get a bad signatures error, then the install fails on me...know whats wrong?

I think you need to update your sources database files (go to update under packaging) or just put it so it only browses the 3 cd's you have. kde menu/configuration/packaging/media manager and just check the 3 installation cd's. Post back if you still have problems.
I also found this thread http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=155149 that talks about p2p programs.

Thank you :)
I dont want it to browse my CDs, I tried that already and I had some problems..I just want it simple, so I am trying to find a FTP server that works...

If someone could post me the FTP servers they use that work for them, that would be great.

Thank you
~Kyle


This is LinuxKyle btw.