Installation

weerad64 · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:25 am Post subject: Installation

I was just wondering why whenever i try to install any application on my computer and i follow the directions step by step, it never works. Am i just doing it wrong or do i have to do an extra step on BLAG?

jebba · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:28 am Post subject:

Too vague

weerad64 · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:33 am Post subject:

Well.you may remember( but you probably don't) that I was having trouble installing AIM for Linux. Now i want to download SeaMonkey and I have the same problem I haved before.

jebba · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:39 am Post subject:

john maclean · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:24 am Post subject:

When you try to install anything graphically using the menu items like synaptic then your box should ask you for the "root" password.

weerad64 · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:26 am Post subject:

jebba · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:30 am Post subject:

noldrin · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:47 pm Post subject:

one of the reasons apt is better than yum, yum will upgrade on an update, apt-get is more conservative in that it will do only what you tell it to.

BLAG is an rpm distro, it cums with apt and yum for software upgrades, as I previously said, I prefer apt. This is the order you should try and install apps:

First from the repository, try using synaptic from your system menu. Once you move beyond this and start going off the archive, you are going to run the risk of breaking things.

Second, from third party rpm. You can find these by typing into google the name of the file and rpm. So if I wanted tilda, I would search tilda rpm. Keep in mind you should try to install fedora ones such as fc6 or ones labeld noarch., ones labked mdk or suse are less likely to work since the name files differently and have broken the standard. If the install doesn't just work from pirut when you click in the browser, download the rpms and do:

su -
apt-get update
apt-get install thirdparty.rpm

If you find it needs rpms you don't have, then download the missing rpms and run:

apt-get install thirdparty.rpm themissing.rpm theothermissing.rpm

and hopefully this will work. Not, you only really need to run apt-get update once durring a try at install since it's fairly unlikely the archive will happen to update in the middle.

If no of these methods work, you can try to install from tar.gz or tar.bz (tgz or tbz). Download the file and run from the command line.

tar xvfz downloaded.tar.gz

then read the readme. You might just need to run ./install.sh or you might have to run a configure script. Every program is different and you'll have different successes.

If you are installing all files, they might not work at all. They could be version locked to really old libs, or the system has evolved enough to break the file. This generally means no one has cared enough about the program for 5 years to update it and their is a good chance you are barking up the wrong tree and a newer program has now become the standard.

Also note that some non rpm files you'll download will come as source and part of the install is compiling it. You should install gcc and make. You also might have to install a lot of development libraries (tagged with a d)

Yes a lot of this is a pain, but this is probably why an rpm of the program doesn't already exist.