Let me start by saying I am a complete and utter loser. I´m brand new to Mandriva, and have no idea on any of these. Ie read those tutorials of how to install a .tar.gz and I cant get my head around any of it. I open terminal, do the first step and BAM! Im lost already.

If anyone could help me install Pidgin that would be great.

Also if anyone knows where I could get some "QCA TLS"plugin that would be really appreciated too.

Thanks

Check if it exists as an rpm by going into the package installer System/Configuration/Packaging/Install Software and then search for pidgin. Then install it using this. If it's not there, then you probably need to add repositories. You can do this in the GUI, probably in Software Media Manager, or something like this. If not, go to easyurpmi link at the top of this page and add sources for:

main
main_backports
contrib
contrib_backports
updates
plf-free
plf-nonfree

and then search again for pidgin. This is much easier than attempting to compile something from source. If Mandriva doesn't have pidgin, then maybe install and use gaim instead as pidgin is the replacement to gaim.

EDIT:

I checked, it's in main_backports, so you can get it easily enough without compiling.

The tools ian is discussing are found in the Mandriva Control Center (AKA Configure My Computer). Note that you should always go through the control panel to the software install tool to install software before trying to compile it yourself (as you would with a .tar.gz). These packages are pre-compiled and much, much easier to install

Yep, forgot you can also get them through Configure Your Computer, but you can also get through packaging without having to open configure your computer first. So many ways to do the same thing

It's in package 'libqca1-tls'.

This is a good page to read for a newcomer:

http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Basic_tas...moving_software

Some important quotations:

"Almost any application you wish to run on Mandriva Linux will be available from the official Mandriva software repositories."

"If the application or version you require is not available from any official or third party repository, you may be forced to install it by downloading the raw source code, compiling it, and installing it to your system. This is the least preferred method of installing software and should only be used if you have no other option."

Uh, libqca1-tls isnt in the Mandriva Packing thing.

Oh, yes it is: at /main/release/
(not using Mandriva, but just checked and it's there).
Are you using a broken mirror?