installation frustration

[xIcculusx]

ok i have mandrake 8.0

im trying to install xmms i have the files andi have uncompressed them , i cant figure out what to do to install it


i followed the read me step by step to my knowledge , im getting a lil frustrated

this is what im getting

and to top it off i cant seem to paste the text from the console ....

sigh .. its break time , please help

[stepdad]

Linux software that generally comes in two formats (actually more than that but only two that need to be of concern to you if you run Mandrake.), the tarbell and the RPM. I'll walk you through the installation procedure for both, from the console.

Ok, you've downloaded your tarbell from the net, you can recognize it because the filename looks something like this:

mysoftware.tar.gz

So, you open yourself a command console and begin. First, in order to install software you need to have root priveledges. This is necessary so that you have the permissions needed to copy files to otherwise protected directories. Since it's never a good idea to login as root (only to check mail, but thats a discussion for another time), you want to give yourself root priveledges breifly to allow you to install the software. You do this by typing the following command:

su

The system will prompt you for your password, give it the root password. You now have root privledges and are ready to begin. Next we change directories to the directory in which the tarbell is stored. In my case it would have downloaded to /home/ftp/incoming - but this is probably not the same directory you use. But we'll use that as an example:

cd /home/ftp/incoming

I normally check to make sure I'm in the correct directory by getting a directory listing:

ls

We are now ready to unpack our tarbell.

tar xzf mysoftware.tar.gz

This will decompress the tarbell in a directory under /home/ftp/incoming/ named mysoftware (the directory name will be the same as the name of the tarbell). This is nice if you don't plan on keeping a copy of the source code around for later use. If you do, then you will probably want to use a different directory so that your incoming directory doesn't become cluttered with subdirectories. My directory of preference for source code is /usr/src, so instead of the above command you would use:

tar xzfC mytarbell.tar.gz /usr/src

This extracts the same tarbell into /usr/src/mysoftware, allowing me to keep a copy of the source code handy for latter revisions if I feel the need for coding changes.

Now, we switch to the directory in which our source code resides:

cd /usr/src/mysoftware

This is where things become a little more difficult. Most programs will come with a README or INSTALL text file that you can read to tell you exactly what steps to follow to compile the software. However, the majority of source code that I have run into can be compiled as follows:

./configure
./make
./make install

This will compile the vast majority of your source tarbells without difficulty.


The RPM is another method of software distribution. It is usually a little easier to deal with, as it is precompiled and only needs to be installed. Again, you want to be logged in as root, so you start with the following:

su

Give the system your root password. Now change directories to where your RPM is located:

cd/home/ftp/incoming

Then install the RPM:

rpm -ihv mysoftware.rpm

All of this can also be done from the GUI with programs such as Kpackage that install by default in most Mandrake installations. You can experiment with them to find which package managers you like the best.

Hopefully that helps.

Stepdad

[X_console]

This NHF should answer your questions: http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/compiling/softinstall.html

[bdg1983]

Whenever a new member joins Linuxnewbie, I would advise them to take a few minutes and review the FAQ's and NHF's. They are there to help you.