new to linux

[elifino]

how do I download programs from the net and install them and to open and run them? also how do I install programs from cd s thanks

[scanez]

Well that all depends on what distro you are using and what type of files you are talking about...rpm? tar.gz? other?

[elifino]

I am running mandrake 8.2 , and and it is a tar. gz

[scanez]

For a tar.gz file, you'd do

tar xzvf filename.tar.gz

which will unpack it into a directory. Go into that directory and read the README and/or INSTALL files if they exist for more instructions. Usually you would have to do

./configure
make
make install (as root)

The files on the CD are most likely .rpm files, which you install with

rpm -i filename.rpm

[elifino]

thank you Scanez , I will try it,

[elifino]

Hi Scanez it didn't work , i tried tar.xzvf filename, tar -xzvf filename, tar -xzf, and still it didn't open, I tried it from a terminal and graphical. any ideas thanks

[scanez]

Hmmm...ok, what was the error?

[elifino]

mostly nothing happens, no error,but once a dialog box poped up couldn't find tar.-xzvf

[mdwatts]

Try

tar zxvf filename.tar.gz

and you should see the extracted files zip by.

[elifino]

Scanez thanks i will try it

[elifino]

won't open, here is what i did , copied file to window , right mouse click , open with tar zxvf filename tar.gz. the clock came up and clock disappeared and nothing happened.any ideas thanks :( :confused:

[scanez]

Try this:

open up a terminal, change to the directory you have the file saved in (with the cd command), then run

tar xzvf filename.tar.gz

in the terminal. That should create a new directory called "filename" or something, cd into that directory, read the README/INSTALL files in that directory.

[elifino]

thanks WattMD , Scantez I will try it.

[elifino]

I couldn't get this to work either, is exasperating, I going to quit for a while , thanks again guys

[elifino]

I couldn't get this to work either, this is exasperating, I am going to quit for a while , thanks again guys

[ComputerJunkie3275]

Try this:

gunzip < filename.tar.gz | tar xvf -

This will unzip the tar file and then untar them.

[elifino]

thanks computer Junkie I will try it.

[scanez]

Ok ok, maybe we should have done this a while ago. Run

file filename.tar.gz

to find out what type of file it actually is.

[mdwatts]

If you are using KDE, then start Konqueror in File Manager mode, browse to where the tar.gz resides, right-click on the file and select extract here.

OR as we have already suggested and perhaps you are not following our instructions correctly...

Open up a console/commandline

cd /directory_where_the_tar.gz_resides

tar zxvf filename.tar.gz

(you should see the files zip by)

cd filename

Review the readme/install docs.

[elifino]

computerJunkie I tried using gunzip and it couldn't find the file, Scanez , I tried the run file filename tar gz , the result was run command not found,
let me start from square one, I downloaded quicktime4linux-1.5.5.tar gz to home dir. I can open a terminal and ls shows the file in colored letters, I am running mandrake 8.2 just installed it ,and as you can tell I know nothing about. thanks for all your help

[elifino]

thanks WattsMD I will try this , thanks again