forum.excito.org

Hi again!

As an alternative to the method in the linked thread: http://forum.excito.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3366, I am trying to install a piece of software that does not come as a debian package, but as a tar ball.

Since I'm new to the command prompt, I'm not sure where to put the tar ball (which I now have on a USB memory stick, since source forge does not allow me to get through FTP), or quite what to do with it.

Step 1: Where do I put the tar ball before decompressing it?

Step 2: What do I do with it once it is decompressed? Am I correct in assuming that I should give the commands

• ./configue
  make
  make install

?

Step 3: Is that all?


Any help is greatly welcomed!

yes that is all, if all the dependencies are present (such as build-essential) and there are no problems during the build. But the compiler will inform you of this. But if all is ok, the compile is indeed very simple.

OK, thanks!

Is there any particular place that I should unpack and compile the software?

(I have used Macs for years, and they do not require this kind of manual labor, so I really don't know.)

The scripts install all the relevant files in the right places so you just need to uses working directory such as ~/downloads.

Just make sure that you first install the package build-essential by running
as root to install the most common needed packages when compiling your own software.