why am i unable to install programs on slack 10.2?
 

i have tired to install GRASS 6.0 and Knoppix (GIS software) on slack 10.2 but i have only tried to use the GUI package manager and it hasnt worked yet.

the mann included with grass sugessted that i use "make install" commands in bash or shell and i hav had no luck yet.

i have also tried to use the shell script included with the program files and source and binary, yet it still will not compile.

after trying this four times with the make sh script, configure script, and install script, i am unable to locate or find the files in any of the directories in my partitions.

after messing around like this for some time i attempted to modify a script in the hope that the file location would end up on my root directory.

i fear this had no effect and i have looked, and searched through all files and directories for the installed version to no avail, is there a package manage already installed or is my kernel conflicting with installable packages.

iam using kde on a standalone workstation. after installation i ran alsaconfig and xinit to get gui and sound to work. is there more config i need to use?

You are suffering from "Other Distro-itis", where you think you have to use packages to install anything. Slackware does not require you to do this. However, there are pre-compiled packages for Slackware.

Slackware packages use '*.tgz' type files.There are Slackware package repositories all over the 'net.

Or you can install from source by d/l'ng the source files, extracting them, cd into the extracted directory, running 'configure', 'make', 'make install' (the make install is needed to be run as root, or su).

For more information on Slackware, look at www.shilo.is-a-geek.com/slack

There is a wealth of information in there. Just don't do the swaret update thing. '-current' is so far ahead of 10.2, you will make alot of stuff unusable.

you sure, as i tried make install, and configure and from shell ive been told that those commands are unrecognised. i'll try just copying them straight in .. and

"running 'configure', 'make', 'make install' "
it didnt work last time and i'll try it again. any tips running these commands from sh?

or should i try to find a mirror for grass6 for slack?

Did you do a full install of Slackware?

yes when i installed the O/S i installed everything, using the expert packages selection option on installation. i know i wont use all of the software i installed but i did it anyway. actually i did leave out a few packages, but i didnt think that i needed ada development.

i do have a case of "distroitis" though and i have used probably way too many distro's in the past. i am a bit of a newbie when it comes to linux as windows is used in nearly every workplace and educational institution(except for i.t. dev) in Australia.

will get back to you when i have tied what you recomended. do you know where to find any GIS software?
oh, and i think i found out why KNOPPIX wouldnt work, it is a live cd of linux GIS software(i think that means its a cd o/s).

It would help if you told us exactly what didn't work.

Firstly, it may be worsth re-installing and selecting everything (it could take a long time downloading and installing individual packages to fix this up). It sounds like what you left out probably included 'make' and associated goodies. Usually the development stuff has all the bits you need.

You can get make from http://slackware.it/en/pb/package.ph...ke-3.81-i486-1
you should be able to download to /tmp - open a terminal window and cd /tmp
then as root #installpkg <filename>

There will probably be other stuff missing however like C libraries etc.. you will know when you try compile something :)

Have a read here for some info on slackware package management: http://www.slackware.com/config/packages.php

anyways good luck! Enjoy Slackware!

p.s. a site for unofficial slackware binaries is: www.linuxpackages.net

I just want to add a link in case you want to compile anything from source. Jeremy wrote a nice Howto on this topic:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...ms_from_Source

ok;
when installed the O/S i did include all of the C libraries and compilers, i went through and checked that they where there, by quizing from the bash or Konsole. (eg: gn then Tab, C, then tab, i'm sure you know what i mean). when i looked through the documentation i found a list of required programs necesary for the installation of Grass 6 (and any other program) i found that they had all been installed and that i did have all of the necesary libs. when i ran "make" i passed options "B" and i think "r" and the same message came up when i did this as when i just tried to run "make" as a command on its own, as i mentioned before my linux workstation is a standalone and i use a Windoze toaster to access the net. hence i cannot provide you with exclusive details of my probing, querying, and forceing of my shell. i always run as root, as i metioned before becuase i do not use the internet from my linux box. i could also re-install my operating system, but is this necceary? do i realy need the Ada or ADA or ada or whatever packages? arent most programs written and compiled in C,C+,C++, and C# ?
iam studying at the moment so please forgive me for delays in correspondance. thank you for your help.

oh, and another thing in Slack, when i try to run a program downloaded from the net or other sources (cdrom, floppy, etc) i get the error message

"The Desktop entry;
file /mnt/<filename>
has no type =...
entry "
WTF?
it happens when i try to run any of the gear shaped icons (under kde) no matter which ones i try.

i have make, it was installed with the O/S.

what i havent tried is to "cd" to "/tmp", then, "#installpkg <filename>"

i have a lot of stuff to try will get back to it when i can.

Even if that machine isn't online, you shouldn't be running as root all the time, as you could break something yourself.

You may not need the Ada package(s) and you can install them later on if you find that you do. Not sure about the statistics of what languages are used, but there's no such thing as "C+". Programs can also be written in Java, Python and Perl amongst other languages.[/QUOTE]

Without the output and error messages of "./configure" or "make" you won't get much helpful advices.

I have to back up Nylex, it is very very easy to break your system as root user. I know it seems uncomfortable in the beginning, but consider creating and using an additional user account with restricted rights.

Sounds OK, if I understand right what you are saying. The gear shaped icon indicates often that KDE doesn't know what type of file this is (like the little empty window icons in Windows Explorer for unknown file types).
You should describe in detail what you downloaded and how you did this. It sound like you donwloaded some archive to your KDE desktop and tried to start it by double clicking on it?

It doesn't matter where you are when you use installpkg with a Slackware tgz package. You just have to be root and you have to give the the full path to the package if it's not in your actual directory, otherwise "installpkg name-of-package.tgz" is enough.

When you ran configure did you type "./configure" from within the right source directory?