Help on how to injstall tar.gz file

[xaviers2002]

Hello, I am trying to install flashplayer but it is a tar.gz. Can anyone tell me how to install tar.gz files?
Thanks

[Distro-Don]

Hello, I am trying to install flashplayer but it is a tar.gz. Can anyone tell me how to install tar.gz files?
Thanks

man tar

[UnderScore]

While reading manpages is a good idea, it will not be immediatley obvious how to use it.
A tar.gz file is a compressed archive of files similar in concept to a ZIP of files.
To extract the files you will need to use either the command line or KDE's ark program. Extract via the command line:
tar zxvf theflash.tar.gz

[caminoix]

what are manpages?
i'm a complete newbie and i know how to extract the tar.gz (it happens quite automatically, actually) but then i'm left with a bunch of files which i have no idea what to do with. simply clicking on them doesn't help :(

can you help me, please?

[Distro-Don]

what are manpages?
i'm a complete newbie and i know how to extract the tar.gz (it happens quite automatically, actually) but then i'm left with a bunch of files which i have no idea what to do with. simply clicking on them doesn't help :(

can you help me, please?

manpage is a manual page that tells you all about how to use commands such as tar.

[OErjan]

there is almost ALWAYS a readme and install file among those you unpacked.
they are there so you can read them and get same info as we can give you.
there is a few links here i think you might find interesting.
http://www.real.com/linux/?rppr=rnwk&src=040104freeplayer
and what it says on their homepage about installin realplayer10

Installation Instructions

- Ensure that the .bin file you downloaded is executable. You can make the .bin file executable by running the "chmod a+x RealPlayer10GOLD.bin" command from a terminal window.

- Run the .bin file by typing "./RealPlayer10GOLD.bin". Follow the prompts provided to finish installing the player.

- When you launch the player for the first time, a set-up assistant will take you through configuring your player.

- Enjoy your RealPlayer10 for Linux!

here is the link for the player in question.
http://www.real.com/realcom/R?href=http%3A%2F%2Fforms.real.com%2Freal%2Fplayer %2Fdownload.html%3Ff%3Dunix%2FRealPlayer10GOLD.bin %26product%3Dplayerplus%26system%3Dlinux%26pcode%3 Drn%26src%3D040104freeplayer%2Clinux%26opage%3Dlin ux&pageid=linuxPage&pageregion=offer_button

:oops: oops, it was flashplayer you wanted. sorry :oops:

[caminoix]

thank you :)
unfortunatelly at the moment i can't try to do it to make sure i understand everything properly, but it looks like i should know :)
how did you know i needed flashplayer? is it the first serious obstacle ( ;) ) for every newbie to fall over?

ps. could you please recommend me some good p2p clients running under linux?

[OErjan]

actually i read your posting too fast, and as a result anbswered wrong question.
i have link to a GREAT! guide for the instalation if you speake Swedish, if not... i will try to translate it.
EDIT here is a BREIF translation of a MUCH larger howto.
first download the TWO files install_flashplayer_6_linux.tar.gz and install_flashplayer_6_linux_sa.tar.gz
now we unpack them, go to the place you stored them ( i did that to a directory in my home called flashfiles) and issue comands.

tar xvfz ./install_flash_player_6_linux.tar.gz

tar xvfz ./install_flash_player_6_linux_sa.tar.gz
now i do
./flashplayer-installer
answer the questions (quie clear but...)

Please choose which directory to install Macromedia Flash Player 6:

[m] Install Macromedia Flash Player 6 into Mozilla user
directory: /home/oe/.mozilla

[n] Install Macromedia Flash Player 6 into Netscape user
directory: /home/oe/.netscape

[o] Install Macromedia Flash Player 6 into Opera user
directory: /home/oe/.opera

[a] All

Please choose a directory: m
then i got something like this
NOTE: Please ask your administrator to remove the xpti.dat from the
components directory of the Mozilla or Netscape browser.[/quote]
i issued the folowing comands (in Slackware, knoppix may have the files somewhere else and X.Y is the version number of mozilla)

cd /usr/lib/mozilla-X.Y/components

mv xpti.dat xpti.dat-old
now for the actual player,

cd /home/oe/flashfiles/install_flash_player_6_linux_sa

./flashplayer-installer

Default destination directory [/usr/bin]:

Do you want to install the Macromedia Flash Player 6 (Standalone) icon on your
desktop? (y/n): n


----------- Install Action Summary -----------

Macromedia Flash Player 6 (Standalone) will be installed
to the following destination directory:

Destination directory = /usr/bin
Install icon to desktop = Yes

Proceed with the installation? (y/n/q):y
I know this is a very sketchy translation. but it worked for me as far as i can tell. i used flash 6 but your version may be newer.

[caminoix]

i'm afraid i don't speak swedish :( just able to recognize a couple of words, that's all... :(

oh, so it was not the answer to some other question? well, it looked very reasonable at least :)
if i may ask you to, don't yet translate it. by tomorrow evening i should know whether i can do with what i learned or not. if not, then i'll be certainly very grateful for the translation :) but otherwise, no point in your spending time.
it's extermely nice of you, thank you :)

i know it's naive, but it doesn't matter which distribution i have, right? all programs run on all distributions, is that it? i have knoppix 3.8 (and windows xp) in case it was important anyhow.

[OErjan]

i edited that posting as you wrote yours... oh well

[caminoix]

happens :)

thank you very much :) i think this is rather enough :)
bad luck, i can only see it tomorrow evening :(
in case i have any problems (but i don't really think i will, with that howto :) ) i'll ask you to let me ask you again... :)

just the last question (i hope, and i guess so do you ;) ):
if i download and succeed to install a p2p client, where will be the downloaded files stored? is it the ram disk? but then, how could i use them under windows, given i'd ever like to?

[OErjan]

you maty ask as much as you want.
just do SOME of the work yourself:-)
it is not fun to do ALL your work.
the documentation link on top of page is helpful for MANY things, look trough that first.
oh and here are a few external links with more general information.
http://www.tldp.org/
http://www.debian.org/doc/
http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#apt-howto
and here a link to a "crashcourse" in linux from the comandline.
the level is not easy but it IS fairly thurough.
you get a fairly good grip of basics trough it.
http://floppix.com/labs.html
if you strugle trough it a few times i would say that you know enough to use 90% of the most used comands well.
The site it may be 5 years old and the distribution content is even older but ~98% is still same at the console.

[caminoix]

trying... but it's not really very easy when you have no idea about the names of the programs &c., and when everything is new to you. but i'll do my best and try not to ask too much :)

ps. i just had a thought it could be useful to have a help for windows users exclusively, explaining the linux terms &c. with their windows correspondences.

[OErjan]

there is such sites. brb with a few links
hewre is one (little old but extensive).
http://linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-lin-soft-en/table.shtml
another
http://www.linux.lk/software/windows.php
and another
http://www.tuxs.org/winusekde.htm
and yet another
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/DOS-Win-to-Linux-HOWTO.html
and
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_software_equivalent_to_Windows_software
...
http://www.goldfiles.com/multimedia/technology_editorials/portals/newbies_guide_to_open_source_software.shtml
...
http://www.impactsites2000.com/tekreview/Linux_Ark.htm
do you need more?
the first link is the least effort for quick searching, if you scroll down a bit it is all a table. the others are more like articles and lectures.

[OErjan]

do you have a usb pen? a CD or DVD burner (other than the drive you use for Knoppix)? if yes you casn burn cd's and DVD's like in Windows, just use a CD-RW and burn to that as you need. reboot into Win and load the files there and wipe the CD ...
or use a pendrive, they are fairly cheap and usually work well in Linux. i have tried a Sandisk cruzer (Sandisk cruzer micro) nd and a bunch of nonames. all but one noname and another brandname (do not remember brand) worked GREAT, and both the troublesome disks worked great after being formated to fat16 (a windows filesystem) in linux.
EDIT formating MIGHT break the disk, not likely but risk is real)

[caminoix]

thank you very much once again :)
i don't even know where to look for that sort of answers, that's it. this site was at the very top of google results, so i sticked to it. but after all, it would be most unfair of me to say it wasn't extremely helpful :)
sorry for taking your time and thank you for being ready to share it with me :)

[fingers99]

i know it's naive, but it doesn't matter which distribution i have, right?

Well, it does for installing packages. I'm assuming you have a HD install of Knoppix.

For any Knoppix the following is true. Knoppix is based on Debian which uses .deb packages and a package management tool called apt-get. So, to install packages (let's say you want synaptic, which is the graphical front end to apt-get) you'd do:

su
(prompt for root password)
apt-get update && apt-get install synaptic && exit

(the && simply means do the next command after you've finished the one before it: exit just returns the console to a normal user -- you don't want to be root for longer than you need to be).

You can also use "tarballs" which are compressed (or, at least. archived) source files. These will have .tar, .tgz or .tar.gz suffixes. Their use is not recommended as they make the system harder to update and there are very few programs not released as .deb. Same goes for .rpm (which is a format used by some other Linux distros) although at a pinch you can install them with a program called alien.

[csdavid]

Konqueror, the web browser? really a FILE MANAGER, makes this very easy. Start->Internet->Konqueror.
Browse to where you downloaded the tar file.
Point at the file. Click (or double click) to open the file. Examine the contents.

Guys, stay away from the command line stuff. Tar files are Zip files with bad naming conventions.
The GUI handles it. Give people the simplest way to reach their goal.
Trust the applications that are in the distribution.

They can make Windows look like riding an old pig.

Diatribe aside, after you extract the files (using rightclick->Extract->ExtractHere) you will have a folder "install_flash_player_7_linux" that has a shell script "flashplayer-installer". rightclick->OpenWith->Other...
and type "sh" in the application dialog and click on the "Run inTerminal" and "Do not close when command exits" check boxes.
Then you will see something very much like this:

Copyright(C) 2002-2003 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Macromedia Flash Player 7 for Linux

Macromedia Flash Player 7 will be installed on this machine.

You are running the Macromedia Flash Player installer as a non-root user.
Macromedia Flash Player 7 will be installed in your home directory.

Support is available at http://www.macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/

To install Macromedia Flash Player 7 now, press ENTER.

To cancel the installation at any time, press Control-C.

Follow the prompts and you are on your way.

[jjmac]

Just a bit of .deb package trivia.

There basically just an "ar" file. Which itself is __very__ similar to a "tar" file, (archive and tape-archive files).

If you do ...

]$ ar -x <filename>.deb

You will get three files,

data.tar.gz
control.tar.gz
debian

The last just being a text file. You can then expand the two .tar.gz files if you want.

]$ tar -zxf control|data.tar.gz

And they will expand into the current directory.


If you go,

]$ ar <filename>.deb debian control.tar.gz data.tar.gz

You will have your package back. Order is important.

Purpose (grin), not much, but handy if you just want to pull a package apart just to have a look, with out having to install it.


jm

[caminoix]

thanks, guys :)

csdavid:
staying away from command line is certainly helpful. it's not that i'm very much against it, but it might really be discouraging for a complete newbie just like me:)
riding an old pig? I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. - Winston Churchill :)

just one question more: what do i do if installing from source fails 'cause i don't know where to find files it says it needs or it doesn't say what files it needs, and synaptic can't see neither the .tar.gz nor the same converted to .deb, and finally dpkg -i only gets me an installed and uncompressed but uncompiled source?

[jjmac]

caminoix,

>>
staying away from command line is certainly helpful. it's not that i'm very much against it, but it might really be discouraging for a complete newbie just like me:)
>>

In Aus, the tourist industry have a jingle for holidaying in the top end. What we call the 'never never' ...

"You'll never never know, if you never nerver go" (grin) (i couldn't resist that one)


Command lines and source compiles. Keep it simple, experiment with very small programs, in order to get an initial feel.


>>
just one question more: what do i do if installing from source fails 'cause i don't know where to find files it says it needs or it doesn't say what files it needs,
>>

Learn by doing ...
Post the erro here ...
pipe the output to a log ... ie;

]$ make 2>&1 | tee logfile

Then just start with the first error first. Sometimes, pasting a whole error output string on a google search will return info on that particular error. Lots of errors can be missleading, as often those that follow are just leading on from the previous. That is, if you can solve the initial ones, often the layer will disapear. And like all things, it's just something that needs to be done in practice.


Some Common Error Trivia:
-----------------------------------------

"carn't find symbole"

often it is trying to link with an incompatible library version. it probably wonts a later version.


"compiler can't create executables"

look for a typo in the configure script, look into the config.log file, backing through it to anything to do with the linking stage of a test compile. There is likely a missing space between two cli switches concerned with the linking.


"carn't find libblah"

your probably trying to compile Qt (couldn't resist that one either :) )


>>
and finally dpkg -i only gets me an installed and uncompressed but uncompiled source?
>>

The switch is for "installing" a binary package. Not unpacking source. Look into your manuals, including "dpkg-deb".

The "--dry-run" switch can be handy for doing dummy runs, just to extract info.

dpkgmay not have a direct "what-depends" switch, as does the "rpm" system, but ...

"--dry-run -r <packagename>" and
"--dry-run -P <packagename>"

will safely tell you what is dependent on that package.


jm