general installing

[nickman602]

can anyone tell me why every time i download a program and try to install it, it wont work. im obviously doing something wrong but every time i try to type "./configure" as it says, every response that cmes up says missing and invalid. please help. :(

[evulish]

What are your exact commands? (starting from the tar...)

[DMR]

Also, what are the exact error messages? They would probably help us pinpoint the problem faster. It might be something as simple as not having a necessary file or package installed.

[Keyser Soze]

you are running as root correct?
And you are in the directory with the setup files....
And you read the install file that came with the program?
Following those, the next thing would be if you have compilers installed, but that is a longer conversation...