installing binaries

cougar62 · #1 October 14th, 2007, 02:13 AM

hey everyone, today i reinstalled linux after taking a break from it. i dont really know how to install programs that are .tar, .rpm, or binaries. nothing i really find on the internet is real descriptive so that doesnt help.
Im running Kubuntu 7.10RC, the main reason i dont enjoy linux so much is that i cant figure out how to install. i need to install the new nvidia drivers and wine and some other programs. anything else you need to know just tell me.

**kage** · #2 October 14th, 2007, 05:34 AM

Kubuntu is derived from Ubuntu, which uses Debian's "apt" package manager. While apt (apt-get) is a command line tool, there are many gui frontends for it. Using apt (or synaptic/kynaptic), you can download, configure, and install a wide range of software using one simple program.

The Kubuntu guide has a detailed section on adding/removing software: https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/kubuntu...lications.html

cougar62 · #3 October 14th, 2007, 06:13 AM

well thats the thing, adept or package managers for some reason havent been able to install the binaries. i want to install drivers and such but this that site doesnt seem relavent to install or running binaries. when i try and open it, it opens KATE text manager and thats it. what am i supposed to do?

**kage** · #4 October 14th, 2007, 06:25 AM

Using adept, synaptic, apt, etc you don't need to download or install binaries. An example would be, instead of downloading gimp, you would simply tell adept to install it, and all of the work is done for you.

If you're trying to install something that adept cannot find, that is a completely different topic. You originally mentioned .tar and .rpm.

RPM files are binaries for redhat and suse systems, to use these on debian (Kubuntu is derived from debian), you will need to use a program called "alien" to convert the .rpm into a .deb, debian's binary format. You can then use "dpkg -i foo.deb" to install the binary, assuming you replace 'foo' with the correct package name.

TAR is an archive format (.tar, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz), not a binary package. Usually, tar package files contain the source files, used to manually build/compile a package. Using adept you should never have to compile a program yourself.

cougar62 · #5 October 14th, 2007, 05:57 PM

ok, well, i usually use the adept installer, but it doesnt always find the things i want. i have binaries for drivers, and source files for wine updates and such. it would help if if you could tell me how to compile things as well. but the thing is i cant always go through adept, so i would like to have the ability to compile and install things as well.

**kage** · #6 October 14th, 2007, 07:33 PM

You might not have the universe and multiverse repositories turned on in adept (they are off by default). Turning these on will allow you to find much more software. To add these repositories, see the Ubuntu guide (there are directions there for adding repositories under Kubuntu):

http://kubuntuguide.org/Feisty#Add_E...u_Repositories

Most source tarballs are installed using the method I'm about to show; however, a program not written in a compiled language, such as Java or Python, will be installed significantly different. Azureus, a bittorrent client, is a good example of this. Since it is written in Java, you do not have to compile it at all, you simply run it. Before you start trying to compile a program, be sure to read the "README" and/or "INSTALL" txt files contained within the archive. These files will contain special information about installing from the developers. For compiling, I'm going to write a very brief tutorial. All of the following must be done within a terminal/console window.

Source tarballs can be in many formats, the most common being .tar.bz2 and .tar.gz.

.tar.bz2 is a .tar archive using bzip compression.

.tar.gz is a .tar archive using gzip compression.

To open a .tar.bz2 archive, run:

Code:

$ tar -jxvpf ./foo-2.1.tar.bz2

To open a .tar.gz archive, run:

Code:

$ tar -zxvpf ./foo-2.1.tar.gz

After decompressing the archive, a folder will be created. Decompressing "foo-2.1.tar.bz2," for example, will create a folder "foo-2.1." "cd" to the newly created directory:

Code:

$ cd foo-2.1

Within the directory, you will see several files, many ending with .c. Most linux applications use a file, located in this directory, named "configure." This file changes various settings in the source of the application based on your system settings. To invoke it, run:

Code:

$ ./configure

This will output a lot of messages showing different libraries and required files being found. If everything goes well, you can now make the source.

Code:

$ make

This command takes the source files, and prepares them to be sent to the compiler. One make finished, compile the program:

Code:

$ make install

Depending on the size of the program, this can take a few minutes to a few hours. Most smaller apps (media players, messenger clients, etc) will only take a few minutes. Something large, like a window manager, will take a few hours. Since you're using Kubuntu, you should NEVER compile a window manager. Once the program is done compiling, you can cleanup the files created by make using:

Code:

$ make clean

Your program should now be installed and ready for use. If you are not short on space, I would recommend keeping the folder in which you built the program. You won't need it again, unless you want to de-install the application at some point. To remove a program, from the directory you compiled it, run:

Code:

$ make deinstall clean

cougar62 · #7 October 15th, 2007, 03:21 AM

tar -zxvpf ./nvidia-xconfig-1.0.tar.gz
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Device.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/DRI.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Extensions.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Files.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Flags.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Generate.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Input.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Keyboard.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Layout.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Merge.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Module.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Monitor.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Pointer.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Read.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Scan.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Screen.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Util.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Vendor.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Video.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Write.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Configint.h
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/configProcs.h
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/xf86Parser.h
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/xf86tokens.h
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/XF86Config-parser/Makefile
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/util.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/nvidia-xconfig.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/make_usable.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/multiple_screens.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/tree.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/nvgetopt.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/options.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/lscf.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/query_gpu_info.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/extract_edids.c
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/nvgetopt.h
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/nvidia-xconfig.h
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/nvidia-cfg.h
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/option_table.h
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/Makefile
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/nvidia-xconfig.1.m4
nvidia-xconfig-1.0/gen-manpage-opts.c

thats as far as i can get into the code. when i try ./configure then it says permission denied. im running as root though so it should not be a problem.

**kage** · #8 October 15th, 2007, 04:25 AM

Nvidia-xconfig can and should be installed through apt/adept. You're really asking for trouble later on by refusing to use the systems package manager.

To begin, read this on adding extra repositories, if you haven't already: http://kubuntuguide.org/Feisty#Add_E...u_Repositories

Then, read this on installing nvidia-glx: http://kubuntuguide.org/Feisty#Insta....2FATI_drivers

cougar62 · #9 October 21st, 2007, 07:07 PM

well i was under the impression that 7.04 had the universe and multiverse repositories enabled. but ill double check just in case. i usually just do a system update, but i wasnt sure if that would install drivers too.