Installing in Red Hat

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
good points indeed.
re: konqueror without kde, of course, where is my head at? then again, if one tried to install konqueror, surely they would get errors to the effect that certain libs etc would also need to be installed, and thus they could install whatever was required without needing the full desktop environment, am i right? or just blowing out my ass again?

Well, there is no RPM containing just konqueror. Konqueror is a pretty big part of KDE (which itself is an "environment" and not an application).  An "rpm -qif /usr/bin/konqueror" tells me that the konqueror RPM is part of the "kdebase" RPM which include many major components of KDE:

Code: [Select]

And an "rpm -qR kdebase" shows me a list of things that kdebase depends on.  Now konqueror is an extreme example because it is so tightly integrated into KDE which is a very large desktop environment and in the case of konqueror it is not a standalone app that you can just install and use without KDE. But it is something that is a good illustration in the advantages of RPM.

[dishawjp]

Hi Everybody,

Yeah, it's me again... the hopeless newbie.  Anyway, I tried the ./configure and got a "bash command not found" error message. So I thought that maybe the "configure" command wasn't on my computer or something.  So I did a "find / -name 'configure' - print" and sure enough in the /usr/shared/libtools/libltdl directory there was a configure command.  Then I did a "which configure" to see if it was in my path.  It returned a "configure not in path" message.  So I tried a "set > nnn" and then "more nnn" to check my path.  Sure as hell, I didn't come close to there.

Soooo, my questions are: should I modify my path to include the /usr/shared/libtools/libltdl directory, and... please don't fall out of your chairs laughing at this question... how the hell do I modify my path in Linux.  My .bash_profile file does refer to my path, as does my .bashrc but neither seems to be the proper one to modify. I would have thought that a file like configure might be in the /etc or the /bin directory, or maybe even the /sbin, all of which seem to have lots of executable files and which are in my path.  Should I just "mv" or "cp" configure to one of those directories?

I'm really trying hard to get functional with Linux, and am doing what I can on my own before imposing on all you good people looking for help.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the suggestions and support I've received here.

Jim

[Master of Reality]

I will explain the source installing i bit.
What are you installing??

the configure command is usually include with source distrobution just to check for certain things that the program needs. But configure is usually included with the source so each configure is different. Many programs have the configure command but some dont.
the "./" part of it just means the current directory. "." is the current directory. so 'cd ./' is telling your computer to change directory to the current directory and wont really go anywhere.

Linux doesnt do relative links. which means that you have to put the exact path to a command. that means that you have to use ./whatever if it is in the current directory or ../something if it is the next level down directory or /usr/local/something if it is in /usr/local but you are in some other directory.

I hope that explains a bit (a will look for a link that i had which explains it better).
So you must be in the directory which contains configure to be able to run ./configure.

Other commands that you can run, like 'cd' are in /bin /sbin /usr/bin /usr/sbin /usr/local/bin or /usr/local/sbin because those are usually part of your path which means that if you type 'cd' it will try /bin/cd then /sbin/cd then the others until it finds where the 'cd' command is. But if it isnt in those directories it will say command not found unless you actually type in the full path (I.E. /usr/local/program)

Some programs do not have a configure program. You should make sure to read any documentation that comes with any program before you install it in case it needs any special way to install it. Usually the INSTALL or README file that comes with most programs will tell you exactly how to install it. run the program 'less' to view text files (ie. less INSTALL or less README)

[Master of Reality]

http://home.c2i.net/dark/linux.html#compile
here is the link that would be a good place to look.

[voidmain]

Again I ask why not just get the RPM and install it? Of course if you are just doing this for the exercise of learning how to isntall non-RPM packages then press on. Regarding your path, yes, add to the "PATH" in the ~/.bash_profile separating directories that you add with a colon ":".  

Another note, if you add the "." directory to your path you will not have to use the "./" in front of the name of an executable program residing in the current directory. However, I would not suggest this and would suggest that you instead get in the habit of prepending the "./" when executing programs in the current directory. It's more secure.

[dishawjp]

Once again, thanks.  Bob, to answer your question, the program is just a stupid little game I downloaded.  It's called Icebreaker. You're supposed to save some penguins or something. I'm doing this just for practice; to help me learn Linux.  If there were a way to do it by double clicking on an icon, that's not the way I would want to do it now.  

I probably screwed myself by picking a bad file to play with.  There was no configure file after I expanded (right word?) the .tgz file.  The README just talked about how to play the game, and the INSTALL file was about 2 sentences which were no help to me at all.  It mostly talked about doing a rpm install and there were no .rpm files in the package.  MoR/Bob, the site you pointed me to is excellent.  I'm beginning to build an excellent library of internet resources for Linux thanks to you people here.  I'm updating my web page now.  Originally it was a sort of pro-DOS anti-Windows page, but I'll make it more of a pro-command line, anti-Windows page.  I hope to be able to incorporate these links I've been provided with into some coherent form to help me and other newbies wade through the complexities of Linux.

Thanks again for all the help.  I'll probably have to give up on this particular program, and try to download and install a different one.

Void Main, after I finally successfully install this type of a package, I'll be moving on to .rpm formats. I'm doing all this just to learn.  Maybe someday I'll be able to help other Linux newbies. With WinXP out there, there should be lots of Linux newbies soon

Jim

[Calum]

if you want to download and install a silly little game, then get xbill. it is very very good, is small and simple, there's an rpm available for it (which you can install at the command line) and i am sure it is open source, so you could get a .tgz file of it too. i also know that it comes as windows binaries in a zip file.

also, once you have this game, you need not get any other games for linux.  

i think red hat actually include this on their distro, so if you use red hat, you might already have it installed, which kind of spoils the fun a bit...

[dishawjp]

Sorry All, B

But I guess I really am an idiot.  I gave up on icebreaker, downloaded dopewars as a .tar.gz file.  No problem.  It installed and runs and everything is great.  The ./configure and make and make install all worked fine.  So I decided to try a few simpler things and got some .rpm files.  In particular, I got Icebreaker and xbill as .src.rpm's . I tried the "rpm -Uvh (filename)" on both of them, and no luck.  Red Hat whined a bit about permissions, so I tried the "su - root" and did it again and it sort of croaked and did a lot of nothing.  No unpacking or anything.  Also no executable file found by "find."

I got both of these files from rpmfind.net, but neither would install.  For giggles, I did type gnorpm at the command line and some sort of a GUI thing started up.  I didn't know what to do with it and really don't like GUI interfaces much anyway, so I jussst shut it down.  

Anyway, three of my former students took me out tonight for wings and beer. After four hours in a bar with them, maybe the problem is with me and not with Linux or the downloads.  

Darned kids getting us poor old men drunk and all; have they no shame

Anyway, consider this a progress report. I can now download and unzip and untar programs, but now can't install a simple .src.rpm file.  As braindead as this sounds, it is progress for me.  

Damn! Out of beer!  Need to run downstairs for another beer (or three).  Thanks everyone for all your help.   I'll get this Linux stuff yet... even if I have to drink all the beer in the northeast US to do it

Jim

[voidmain]

It's all in the name.  *.src.rpm is a "source" RPM.  The "rpm -Uvh" command is meant for an installable binary RPM (*.i386.rpm, etc).  But if you wanted to actually use the source rpm to build the binary RPMs and then automatically install the freshly build RPM you would:

# rpm --rebuild xbill.src.rpm

If you would have downloaded the binary RPM (xbill.i386.rpm for example) you would use this command:

# rpm -Uvh xbill.i386.rpm

Now in order to install the source RPM in the way I mentioned in the first example you must have the appropriate development tools installed and the rpm-build RPM must also be installed.  The best way to test if you have everything necessary to manipulate *.src.rpm files is to just try the first example. If it gives you an error let me know and I can help you get the necessary things installed.

A side note, if you wanted to just unpack the source RPM and perform individual steps (prep, compile, build, install) separately you would install the RPM like so:

# rpm -i xbill.src.rpm

Which will put the source under the /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES directory and it will put a file in /usr/src/redhat/SPECS called "xbill.spec".  Change into the /usr/src/redhat/SPECS directory and do a:

# rpm -bb xbill.spec

which will build the xbill.i386.rpm file and place it in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386 directory after it installs it. This is all assuming you are on an i386 architecture. For more info on these build options do a "man rpm" and toward the bottom of the page search for the "BUILD OPTIONS" section.

[rtgwbmsr]

Similar Problem:
I can't get SDL-perl to install.
I type:/home/Dustin/Perl/configure
It says: ""Makefile.PL": No such file or directory"

Meanwhile the file is right there in the same directory...WTF?

[voidmain]

Did you read the directions that came with it?  Usually there is an "INSTALL" or "README" that comes with any package with step by step instructions.

If it is a Perl module that you are compiling then usually the steps are different. Be sure to check the docs but from memory you would usually change into the directory where the module source resides and do something like:

# perl Makefile.PL
# make
# make test
# make install

If there is an executable file called "configure" in the directory that the source was extracted to then you would change into that directory and usually type:

# ./configure
# make
# make install

However, with source packages that come in a tar ball your mileage may vary. You have to follow the directions in the doc as it is all up to the programmer that created the source as to how it should be built and installed.  Good programmers follow the examples above. Not all programmers are good, look at Bill Gates.