I only recently began using open source software and successfully installed a simple program called homebank by compiling the source code with my terminal.

Now I am attempting to install Gnucash, but the instructions I have found are not clear to me. Prevailing advice seems to be use Finkcommander. I downloaded and installed Fink. I have Xcode. I downloaded the source code for Gnucash 2.2.9 and uncompressed it. I can't figure out how to use the finkcommander so I ended up going to the terminal and giving the command "fink install gnucash" which isn't something the instructions said to do, but the terminal is currently working with this command and seems to know what it's doing.

My Finkcommander has no packages listed and I can't figure out I am supposed to use it to interact with packages. I've read all the Fink directions and self-help and feel like something simple here is just eluding me.

My question is, does anyone know how to use Finkcommander to recognize the Gnucash source code I downloaded, or know what I should do step by step to successfully install Gnucash on Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard?

--- A newbie feeling her way in the dark

Are you using the instructions from the Gnucash wiki? It looks like you should be installing/compiling the package name gnucash2.

I did try to use the wiki instructions but my terminal doesn't recognize "gnucash2", only "gnucash" even though gnucash 2.2.9 is what I have downloaded and decompressed. It tells me it can't find the package "gnucash2". What I tried earlier did install Gnucash but it was the 1.0 version and had some errors that wouldn't let it open on my computer. I am still miffed about compiling version 2.2.9.

This is what the terminal says when I type "fink install gnucash2"

Information about 8556 packages read in 0 seconds.
WARNING: unable to determine last selfupdate time. You should run 'fink
selfupdate' to get the latest package descriptions.
Can't resolve dependency "libtasn1-3-shlibs (>= 2.2-2)" for package
"gnome-keyring-2.26.1-2" (no matching packages/versions found)
Exiting with failure.

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask this question on a Mac forum? I had never heard of "finkcommander" so I looked it up and it's some kind of Mac app. Surely more people would be able to help you on a Mac forum, no?
cheers,
jdk

Did you try running 'fink selfupdate' like it asked? If you have, try manually installing libtasn1-3-shlibs from somewhere else on the web.

I too agree that you may have more luck on a Mac forum, but we're willing to toss educated guesses around.

I wasn't sure where to turn so I will take your suggestion and try a mac forum. Thanks for the willingness to help!