Beginner questions

[osom]

Hi all. I am one of those desperate beginners struggling with Linux for the first time and I am impressed. I am using Mandriva 2009.

 

However, I am facing diverse problems which are big enough to make me give up as it's exahusting. First of all it's about installing programs which are not RPM. I already know how to install the RPM but not the other ones. I definetely need some programs installed in my computer and eventhough I have downloaded all of them to my desktop, I can not learn how to install them. I read and read the manuals but I don't understand.

 

I understand that those programs in different formats like .deb for instance have to be "compiled" for installing them, but I simply don't understand how this process works. I assume that Linux can't be so difficult, as every Linux user says it's not. But I find it terribly difficult for some issues and most of all I would hardly stay with a system in which finding and installing programs is so hard or impossible.

 

Anyway, I would appreciate a lot if someone could help me to install these programs.

 

Besides, I am facing problems with Firefox. It is the latest version 3. It does many strange things. For instance, it does not allow me to download. In the tools panel, it does not allow me to tell it where to download the stuff. It gets blank and when pressing the button to pick a destinantion, it won't open. Then, if I start downloading something, it just disappears. I click on Accept to download and that's it, disappears. No trace of my download. I also installed two extensions for download managing and they won't show up anywhere. I tried to uninstall and reinstall but nothing changed. Even my coinfiguration and favorites where still there. I am using Tab Mix as an extension if this might be any relevant.

 

So I am needing to navigate with Firefox and keep Opera open for downloading by copy and paste address. Quite annoying. So, it's many little things that I need to solve in order to choose Linux definetely, and I certainly would prefer to stay with Linux and send Windows to a secondary role.

 

Thanks in advance

Edited November 10, 2008 by osom

[Kieth]

Hi, welcome to the Board!

 

You just need a bit of patience to learn all you need with Mandriva. What programs would you like to add? It seems odd that you would need to build the programs, unless you need some that are very uncommon.

 

For Firefox, go to Edit, Preferences, then Main. There you'll see a choice as to where and how to download items.

 

Kieth

[osom]

Thanks Kieth. Well it's not just patience, it's that I can't see how I can learn to do those things. I have searched lots of places and can't find manuals where it is explained easy enough, so I get blocked and can't go further.

 

Concerning the programs in particular I want, the question is that what I want to learn is how to install any program I may want to try from the internet. It limits the usage too much otherwise. But answering to your question:

 

- Gimpshop (no sorry, I can't stand The Gimp and its 3 floating windows, no way). I have tried many version from the rpm download site but no one works.

- Frostwire or Limewire as I need something similar to Ares

- Gnome-color-chooser

- Wine (in an old version for trying to run Maxthon browser in Linux which is possible but requires an old version of Wine)

 

So, I have all those 5 programs downloaded in my computer but I cannot install them... and either I learn a method or I'll probably quit. Linux seems to be fantastic in many ways, but I need more software and ease of install and evaluation. I miss most of my favourite programs from windows and the linux versions are usually less advanced (for instance the PDF viewer needing to install Acrobat as the best option when it's so bad and heavy (50MB). Most of all I definetely need to run Maxthon in Linux as Firefox or Opera are really bad in comparison and make me waste a lot of time. I use the browser a hell of a lot of hours a day and need the best one, and that is Maxthon.

 

Concerning your instructions for the Firefox problem, doesn't work, I tried that. It's something very strange as it doesn't download anything and does not allow me to even modify or open the download destination, the download manager, notifications, etc. Nothing!

 

Thanks again.

[daniewicz]

Have a look at our wiki regarding the installation of software:

http://wiki.mandrivausers.org/index.php/Software_management

[osom]

Ok, that looks exactly like what I was looking for.Thank you very much. Let's see if I manage, but looks like clear instructions.

[xboxboy]

Hi, welcome to Mandriva users. This forum is full of amazingly helpful and knowledgeful people.

 

A good guide to help you get a desktop up and running is :

 

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desk...ne-2009.0-gnome

 

I personally dont run the gnome desktop, never have used gnome, I'm told its good. I use kde, been using that since mandrake 9 (mandriva from many years ago)

 

OR:

 

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desk...2008-spring-kde

 

Which details the 2008.1 kde desktop set up.

 

I couldn't find a 2009 kde walkthrough sorry, but I've heard a few complaints about 2009 kde as it uses a all new kde interface. You can down grade, but I would imagine it would be complicated.

 

Have a go with gnome. I think thats what ubuntu is using, and thats "supposively" the most user friendly desktop anyway.

 

Linux seems complicated, and time consuming, but it is such a pleasure to use when set up properly. I am constantly surprised with linux, its always doing new stuff nowadays. Pictures, data management, hardware support its all fantastic.

 

Personally Im having issues with a new pc, but its windows thats causing me dramas. Ill push through it and I'm sure I use mandriva for most of the time.

 

Some times new hardware is lacking support in linux, but windows has dramas too....Neither is better, but understand linux, and you will see that you control the computer...not the computer controll the way you work.

[osom]

Thanks a lot, you're very kind.

 

OK, I have one first problem with the Installation of binaries as described in the Mandrivausers Wiki you suggested.

 

It says: extract the contents of the tar.gz and then run the binary like so:

 

tar -xzvf /home/bob/compressedfile.tar.gz

./nameofbinary

 

So, I managed to extract it but... what the hell is the binary? It asks for entering ./ and the name of the binary, but I dont know what that is at all. I have tried with the name of the program, the name of different files or folders, but no luck.

 

Can you tell me what the binary is and how can I identify it?

 

Thanks.

Edited November 11, 2008 by osom

[daniewicz]

The binary is (usually) the file name. For example, when I run firefox I type:

/opt/firefox/firefox

[osom]

When you say file you mean the name of the program? I am trying to install Frostwire and tried to do what you say by typing ./frostwire but doesn't work.

 

What can be wrong? This is crazy.

[neddie]

Have you tried the following command?

ls

[osom]

Have you tried the following command?

ls

 

No. What is that?

 

I am just following the instructions here. http://wiki.mandrivausers.org/index.php/In...e_from_binaries

 

Can somebody help?

[neddie]

Any general wiki instructions can't give specific details about every possible zip file you might find on the internet. In this case the page you link to describes a general way of installing programs distributed in the tar.gz format.

They cannot substitute for more specific instructions, such as those on the download page where you got your binary from. Were there no instructions given to you at all ? That's quite surprising. Or, inside the tar.gz file, once you've unpacked it, you'll often find a file called README or INSTALL.txt or something which give you more instructions. Was there nothing like that in your file?

 

That's where this useful command "ls" comes in - it allows you to list the contents of the directory and tell you what files are in there. One might be a binary, one should certainly be some kind of install instructions.

[Greg2]

Frostwire is a java app, there's no binary. You must enter the new directory you've created when you used 'tar -xzvf' to extract the files. You do that with the cd command, it would be something like this: open a terminal and do

[greg@halfway ~]$ ls |grep frostwire
frostwire-4.17.1.noarch/
[greg@halfway ~]$ cd frostwire-4.17.1.noarch
[greg@halfway frostwire-4.17.1.noarch]$ sh runFrostwire.sh

follow the instructions to set up the app.

 

Please note that you will need to have java installed on your system for this to work.

[osom]

Any general wiki instructions can't give specific details about every possible zip file you might find on the internet. In this case the page you link to describes a general way of installing programs distributed in the tar.gz format.

They cannot substitute for more specific instructions, such as those on the download page where you got your binary from. Were there no instructions given to you at all ? That's quite surprising. Or, inside the tar.gz file, once you've unpacked it, you'll often find a file called README or INSTALL.txt or something which give you more instructions. Was there nothing like that in your file?

 

That's where this useful command "ls" comes in - it allows you to list the contents of the directory and tell you what files are in there. One might be a binary, one should certainly be some kind of install instructions.

 

Tell me you are joking. You mean that for installing very popular programs like Gimpshop, Frostwire, Limewire, etc, you have to do all of that and study a degree in computer programming?

 

Besides why then these tutorials in Mandrivausers Wiki if they are not correct? You are the first one mentioning all of this.

 

So, is it possible for normal people without any knowledge of computer programming to download and install easily normal programs like we all do in Windows? Or is Linux actually limited to very few programs and you have to stick to them? I mean, can I run Gimphsop, Forst/Limewire etc or not?

 

This is very disappointing. Computer use is about programs after all. I dont even use Gimpshop or Frostwire in Windows, they are second class. I would choose Photoshop and Ares but they dont even exist in Linux. Same about the browser Maxthon and most programs.

 

This is where I got Gimpshop. Could you please check it and tell me what I have to do? http://www.gimpshop.com/download.shtml

 

Thanks!

Edited November 11, 2008 by osom

[scarecrow]

Tell me you are joking. You mean that for installing very popular programs like Gimpshop, Frostwire, Limewire, etc, you have to do all of that and study a degree in computer programming?

 

Typing a couple of chars in a console requires far, far less than a degree in computer programming.

Some distros, e.g. Archlinux, have ready to go packages (right out of the box) for all three of the the above programs (although Gimpshop is dead since some two and a half years ago, Limewire stalled, and Frostwire rarely updated). Don't bother trying Archlinux, it will look like nuclear physics to you.

If typing a couple of commands, or making a desktop icon by hand is too much for you, then the best advice I can give you is going back to windows and your beloved trojans.

And, for the record, the best way to install Gimpshop 2.2.11 is forgetting it's existence (which you will have to do sometime, anyway, as it is crashing every six minutes) and using Gimp 2.6.2 instead.

Edited November 11, 2008 by scarecrow