How to install programs and building from source?

[ntrsfrml]

hey guys..i'm a total noob when it comes to Linux I installed Fedora C3 yesterday and can't get to play MP3 or install java/bit torrent clients etc. How do you install programs in Fedora? For example I downloaded Amarok-1.2.3 source and can't compile it .. Read the install file in the .tar which mentions something about typing something in the Base directory of Amarok distribution.. WTH that means? WHy can't it be simple as installing and double clicking programs in Windows XP?

Can anybody please help me linux noob with few installing program tips?

any help is much appreciated.

[dwisianto]

http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_cor...notes.html#Yum

[jonest]

The link given by the previous poster is good. I use apt instead of yum which is also covered in the doc. To give you a quick start approach, go to http://dag.wieers.com/packages/ and download the rpm files for apt and synaptic which correspond to your version of Fedora. Then install as root with 'rpm -Uhv *.rpm' if these are the only RPM files in the directory. Next, as root, issue the 'apt-get update' command which will get a listing of packages available. Next, run synaptic and the rest will hopefully be explanatory. Run the update regularly.

[jonest]

BTW, most source installs are quite simple. download the file and unpack it. If it is a tarball (ends in .tar.gz) issue 'tar -xzvf whatever.tar.gz' to get a directory named whatever. Change into the whatever directory and issue the following three commands.
./configure
make
make install (need to be root)
This is typical, but you should read the README or INSTALL file prior to compiling.

[jonest]

One more thing, the reason why it is not as simple as windows (although I think apt and rpm in general are a lot better) is that programs are written for a lot of different platforms. Somebody may write a program which he or she wants to work on AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Linux, and BSD. It is simpler to supply the source code instead of spending all his or her time creating packages. Also, I generally find that there can be a boost in performance when the program is comiled locally on my computer.

[tashirosgt]

This is how I would classify the program installation methods:

1) The I-will-do-it-all-for-you kind like yum, apt, up2date. They try to fetch whatever application you want from the web and get whatever else it needs and install it. The problems? They can be hard to configure and you can get in trouble if you use more than one of these methods on the same machine. Sometimes you find that you can't install something since what it wants conflicts with another application you have installed.

2) The you-get-it-yourself-and-I-will-install-it methods. You can install things from the command line with an appropriate *.rpm file and the command rpm. It is up to you search the web and find the rpms for anything else that may be needed to support the applicaiton. And it is up to you to keep track of whether updated versions of your applications are available. A "software manager" type of gui is often a graphical interface to the rpm command.

You can download *.tar or *.tar.gz files which untar to produce a script that is usually called "configure" . You run this and it tries to determine whether you have everything the application needs. If you do, then it creates a file to compile the application. You run a script that is usally called "make" to compile and install the application. If you are missing some pieces the configure script gives errors and it is up to you to hunt down the applications that you need.

3) The you-are-totally-on-your-own applications are the kind that someone has setup to install on a "typical" computer. These often come in *.tar and *.tar.gz files, but they have no "configure" script. If you do "make" and there is an error, you have to know enough about programming and compiling to edit the "Makefile" by hand and fix it.

As far as I know, none of these methods has a graphical interface like the Windows installers.

[Sammy]

maybe someone can say...
RPMs also can be relatively simple to uninstall, and a good package manager will point out anything else that needs whatever is being uninstalled. Is there a way to do this with one compiled from source?

[markkuk]

Build RPM packages from your sources before installing, then you get the advantages of package management.