Ok, i am brand new to linux and i'll use my first post on this forum to ask for some help:

I've been trying to d/l and install a bittorrent client, ive downloaded bittornado, but
when i go to unpack the tar file i get this error (with all the necessary junk at the beginning):

BitTornado-0.3.7.tar.gz check.sh Desktop/ hdparm music/ pics/ tmp/
[root@localhost scott]# tar xvf BitTornado-0.3.7.tar.gz
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
tar: Read 2799 bytes from BitTornado-0.3.7.tar.gz
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
[root@localhost scott]#


What is the problem??

Welcome to LQ Scott!

You left the z off. Try this

tar zxvf BitTornado-0.3.7.tar.gz

Thanks for the welcome, Chinaman.

I tried it, and it works! Now i can start downloading stuff.

Thanks a lot!

Trickykid wrote an excellent tutorial you may reference ->

Useful thread and information about installing programs

Heh, i feel even more noobish for not checking the stickys...another problem that i believe is a dependency problem, but im not sure...


[root@localhost Python-2.3.4]# ./configure
checking MACHDEP... linux2
checking EXTRAPLATDIR...
checking for --without-gcc... no
checking for --with-cxx=<compiler>... no
checking for c++... no
checking for g++... no
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C++ compiler default output... configure: error: C++ compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details.

any insight??

Yes, well, umm...your distro didn't give you any compilers
so that you can "compile from source." They set it up for you
to use those rpm files. Looks like you don't have anything
except for gcc...won't get far with that. And as it says, "See
`config.log' for more details."

Take a minute and read that sticky by trickykid. I'm not sure,
but I think maybe in Mike Hearn's part about rpms it will kinda
explain that. I do know that Mandrake is based off the RedHat
system, and they're both rpm distros, which means that they
have repositories where you're supposed to go get applications
as rpms and install them with "something-drak" or whatever. IIRC
they don't supply compilers like we get with Slackware, and it may
even not work right with your system to "compile from source."

/me tried RedHat - it seemed like a remake of Windoze.

Now that I'm using Slackware, I compile from source and optimize
the applications for my particular hardware, such as installing for an
i686 rather than somebody else's app that's precompiled for i386.
This doesn't make a lot of difference, I know, but I want to squeeze
every ounce of power I can get out of it!

You want to follow these instructions:

http://www.zebulon.org.uk/

for setting up URPMI

Then see if the package you want is already available in a Mandrakified version.

If not ONLY install the support RPM's from the repositories for your particular program, and at the end compile your source program from the tars as a last resort.

E.G.

If it requires a Perl or QT update, only uses those from the repositories then compile.