installing software

[ngowdar]

im brand new to linux (mandrake 9.2), and i'd like to run the same programs i do in windows:

-an office suite (koffice?)
-yahoo messenger ( i heard gaim was good)

problem is, i have no idea wat to do with with those tar.bz2 files...

help pleez???

[mengle]

ngowdar,
Welcome to the world of tomorrow! (J/K). Okay first I'll answer your question then let you know I'd do instead. To deal with a *.tar.bz2 file open your console (command line).

Typically I'll use:
bunzip2 -d nameoffile.tar.bz2

Then it spits out a tar file. Type:
tar -xvf nameoffile.tar

Their are some slightly shorter or different methods but this works.

Now it should have made a folder and bunch of files and a few subfolders. You can usually find directions for installing the program in a README file or something like that.

Now what I think you should actually do is open up the Mandrake Control center and add programs using their RPM manager. With time, you'll also need to learn how to use URPMI to add more sources eventually.

I'm a little surprised that OpenOffice wasn't installed by default. If you need a serious office suite, their is no comparison to OpenOffice IMHO.

I hope that's at least a little bit of help.

[ngowdar]

as a substitute for yahoo messenger, i tried installing everybuddy...tell me if this is correct

i unzipped the file using "tar -xvzf [filename]"
then cd into new directory
and run "./config"

when i run ./config, this is what i get:

[willis@localhost willis]$ cd everybuddy-0.4.3
[willis@localhost everybuddy-0.4.3]$ ./configure
creating cache ./config.cache
checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr//bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... yes
checking for working aclocal... missing
checking for working autoconf... missing
checking for working automake... missing
checking for working autoheader... missing
checking for working makeinfo... found
checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
configure: error: no acceptable cc found in $PATH

this has happened several times, the ./config just wont work...what am i doing wrong??

[ngowdar]

whoa...something bad just happened i think...everything's gone!!!

i mean, all the apps that came installed (open office, chat clients, games) are all gone from the start menu thing! and when i click on the "house" icon, nothing comes up!!

what have i done??

[mrBen]

OK - first things first:

ngowdar: please try searching the forums before posting - there are (literally) hundreds of threads and also a help file on installing software.

Your problem with everybuddy is that you don't have any of the development tools installed - you'll need things like gcc, make, and the like. They'll be on your Mandrake CDs.

However, you may be better of for the moment looking for pre-packaged binaries, rather than compiling your own - Mandrake uses rpms and you should be able to find rpms for everybuddy and openoffice or koffice.

[Ryochan7]

Originally posted by ngowdar
whoa...something bad just happened i think...everything's gone!!!

i mean, all the apps that came installed (open office, chat clients, games) are all gone from the start menu thing! and when i click on the "house" icon, nothing comes up!!

what have i done??

This is a common problem with Mandrake 9.2. I'm too lazy to post an answer so I'll just quote a previous post.

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120428

I'm going to assume that you are using Mandrake 9.2 because of your previous inquiries. Disappearing menu links seems to be a common problem for me when I install some things from the Mandrake discs. In order to bring the menu links back, go to the Mandrake Control Center and go to MenuDrake in the System section. Just resave the system menu in MenuDrake and everything, including what you just installed, will be back on the menu.

In a terminal, change to root, using the su command, and you can execute the control center by running the following program:

/usr/sbin/drakconf