could someone please give me detailed instructions on how to extract and install the tar.gz files that you download, I'm new to this and would like to install opera browser on vector linux and getting very confused on how to install things with linux. any help would be appreciated??

It depends on the archive. Sometimes the archive contains pre-compiled binaries, in which case you'd just need to copy the extracted directory to some common location (say, /usr/local/), and then symlink the executable into your path (say, /usr/local/bin/). Sometimes the archive just contains the source, and you have to compile and install it. In this case, there is probably a README or INSTALL file that will give you instructions on what to do.

In either case, you can extract it with:
Replacing "file.tar.gz" with the actual filename.

Once it's extracted, cd into the directory and see what's there.

Check this page for detailed information:

http://www.basicconfig.com/linuxtips...file_slackware

this will solve your problem.

1 members found this post helpful.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Slackware and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Download the file
opera-11.61-1250.i386.linux.tar.bz2
Then as root
Follow the instructions

Kind regards

You do not want to extract the Opera tar packages to your root directory.

Repo has the right idea but made a typo in his command.

The answer to your question is here:

http://my.opera.com/ruario/blog/sele...-installing-it

2 members found this post helpful.

You could have told what the typo was
(c is tar option for create archive, x is the option to expand)

Also with tar modern version, no need to use z or j anymore
tar xvf bla.tar.bz2
tar xvf bla.tar.gz

Yep, I guess I should have done!

And 'v' is optional. Personally I don't usually want the list of extracted files echoed back to me.