Help!! I am new to linux

[Sankalp]

First of all i shud thank u all linux experts for posting some useful info.

Now comin to my problem

i recently installed mandrake 9.1. Now (Guyz plz dont laugh) i cannot figure how to install softwares. :roll:

Well the exe files dont seem to work neither does any file with with install or setup written on it. Actually i was tryin to install softw from digit dvd.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanx in advance

[harmax]

FIRST , welcome to the world of LINUX where u wont find setup or install files for 99.99% of the softwares.
and the satisfaction u gain by compiling , installing an app the hard way and to get it running is IMMENSE , which i hope ull soon find out

please be clear on what u want to install

and by mentioning about exe files ,if u have meant those that work with windows then there is no way u can install them on ur linux machine. look for .bin or rpm file alternatives for ur fav software which u may find on the linux section of digit DVD or on the net

if u have yum installed the job is easy

for help on yum see the opensouurce stickies

[e-freak]

First of all, u have to know that windows executables(.exe files) DO NOT work under a linux environment(atleast not directly).

You need to have .RPM or .TAR or .TAR.BZ2 files to install new software.

The RPM can be used directly to install new software as in windows thru your Mandrake package manager. Mind it that RPMs are system specific. So you have to download an RPM which is made for your system only.

However, the other 2 files have to be extracted first and then compiled for your system which is a bit hectic process for a beginner.

If you have a good system config, I would reccomend you to go for either Suse or Knoppix which are much easier and user friendly.

You can still search for the RPM you want at ....
http://rpm.pbone.net/

I would reccomend you not to go for the source codes ie .tar and .tar.bz2 files.

Here's a tutprial for software installation on Mandrake...
http://vsbabu.org/mt/archives/2002/1..._software.html


Here's another short info....
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/topic-27906.html

You can always use the man pages for further reference...
$ man instruction

To know more bout the man command...
$ man man

[ujjwal]

If you have an always on internet connection, you can install software quite simply using the urpmi tool under mandrake -

http://www.urpmi.org/

If you have a dial up connection, use the following ways to install software -

1. Search the official site or your mandrake site for a RPM for your distro. If you find it, install it either graphically (double clicking it under your default file manager should do the trick), or from command line using "rpm -ivh filename". If it lists additional software as its dependancies, then download and install them too.

2. If you can't find an RPM, download the source code of the software, open a terminal (xterm, konsole, gnome terminal, aterm etc), browse to the directory containing the file.

tar xvzf xyz.tar.gz

Or

tar xvjf xyz.tar.bz2

Based on the file extension.

Then cd to the newly created directory

cd xyz

Use the following commands to build and install the software -

./configure
make
make install

This will take a while ...

Then, run the software you installed, if it is, say, mozilla, type

mozilla

To run windows files under linux (emulation) use wine - http://www.winehq.com/site/download

[GNUrag]

Originally Posted by harmax

FIRST , welcome to the world of LINUX where u wont find setup or install files for 99.99% of the softwares.

you CAN find setup or install files for all 100% of packages at http://packages.debian.org

Head over to : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/
You will find packages for 15490 (and counting) packages under different categories. Choose the one that suites you fit. This page is neatly categorised with packages classified under meaningful categories.

[harmax]

Originally Posted by GNUrag

you CAN find setup or install files for all 100% of packages at http://packages.debian.org

Head over to : http://packages.debian.org/unstable/
You will find packages for 15490 (and counting) packages under different categories. Choose the one that suites you fit. This page is neatly categorised with packages classified under meaningful categories.

by install or setup files i meant wholesome setup files that dont come with nagging dependency requests

and if am not wrong the packages u refered to works only with debian

i tried out for efax and it has something about 10 dependencies , this is the main reason that drives out new users from adopting lin

ideally installers should be like that which comes for RealPlayer or mozilla firefox, which uses a simple GUI like in win and completes the installation by placing icons on the desktop or atleast lists itself in the respective program group.

[ujjwal]

Dependencies are only much of a problem if you use packages built for distributions much older or newer than what you use. For example, trying to install a fedora core package on redhat 7.x will give you lots of errors. Mostly the requirements stated by software are very basic ones, like GTK+ or QT for GUI software. These are present on most systems already, and if it is outdated, you can probably update them in an official way. Command line software have very few requirements indeed. Thats why, if using binary packages, better use the official ones for your distro.

Infact that is one thing I don't like about RPM based distribtutions, they dependencies are way too strict, you could use a slackware based distro if you don't like them. It just doesn't use dependencies, if any shared library is required, you check the README file and install it yourself. Thats the way most windows software works ...

Or you could use a distribution with great package management, like debian (and derivatives) or arch linux. Arch excellently synchronises binary packages and source built packages together, and you can have a mix of both without affecting the package database.

[Sankalp]

Hello PPl

Thanx for all the help u offered me. I think linux has started to look a little more friendly for this nubie

By the way yesterday evenin I receieved a package of cdz from ubuntu
I installed the version 5.04 (for AMD64/EM64T)

Well it seems to work better and atleast the soundcard works (which was not so in case of mandrake).

And abt the exe file i mentioned earlier i found it in the digit june dvd linux folder
The file name is abiword-setup-2.2.7.exe
well the file may have been misplaced i guess.:roll:

I would like to know one more thing. Is the installation of softw in Ubuntu done in the same way as in mandrake??

and wat console do i open?

[GNUrag]

Originally Posted by harmax

i tried out for efax and it has something about 10 dependencies , this is the main reason that drives out new users from adopting lin

Hi harmax,
Here's a small trick. 1) Open Synaptic. 2) Click on e-fax. and 3) click on Apply Button on toolbar. and voila! EFax gets installed without worrying about those 10 dependencies.

Originally Posted by harmax

ideally installers should be like that which comes for RealPlayer or mozilla firefox, which uses a simple GUI like in win and completes the installation by placing icons on the desktop or atleast lists itself in the respective program group.

Allright. Your wish granted. Head over to www.autopackage.org and look at this awesome technology.
http://autopackage.org/gallery.html

This is a project which aims to create stupid-proof click and install GUI installers for Linux much in the same fashion of Windows installers. Autopackage installers work on almost all GNU/Linux distributions. I suggest that you visit the autopackage screen shots gallery.

[GNUrag]

Originally Posted by Sankalp

I would like to know one more thing. Is the installation of softw in Ubuntu done in the same way as in mandrake??

Updating/Upgrading/Installing software in Ubuntu is extremely straightforward. Just start Synaptic, select the packages that you want to install, and click on Apply. This will fetch packages from Ubuntu DVD or its Mirrors, depending on how you have configured it.