I am trying to figure out how to install programs I download from the internet. The example is Mozilla Firebird 0.8. I download it into my documents file and then extracted in there. I have the compressed folder there and the folder that says firefox on it. This is were I am stuck, I opened the firefox folder and could not figure out how to install. Have to think different than the .exe that I have been used to doing. Any suggestions on this or future downloads would be great. I am using SUSE 9.0 personal edition. Thanks, Steve

I'm kinda of a newbie too but I think you go in the terminal and cd to the uncompressed folder and then type ./configure then when that's done type ./make and then finally
./make install that should install it for you

If you have already extracted the zipped file to a directory,now you should have a folder that says Firebird or Mozilla-Firebird ,All you need to do to run Firebird is "cd" or "change directory" to your Firebird folder. In a terminal you will see "you@localhost$" or whatever you are called in a terminal, after that type "cd"and space, then the path to your firebird folder,(example)/home/you/programs/Firebird , then you should be "you@Firebird$ ,then type "su"(no quotes) and hit enter,you should be root@Firebird# , now type ./MozillaFirebird ,and hit enter,and firebird should open and run. after that you can make a link on the desktop and you won't have to go thru all that again. Hope this helps

I have it installed now in my home directory (its firefox, right?) To run it, I cd /firefox and type firefox

Or, from a run box in kde or gnome ~/firefox/firefox (which is shorthand for /home/corey/firefox/firefox)

Or, from a terminal, ~forefox/firefox &
then I can type exit and close the terminal without closing the browser

Here is what I have done so far and it still won't work. I went to terminal which says aces69@linux:~> then I type in cd /home/aces69/Documents/firefox which is were I have it uncompressed. It now says aces69@linux:~/Documents/firefox> to which point I type in su from earlier reply. It will ask me for a password which I am assuming is for the root. I type my password in and I get this linux:/home/aces69/Documents/firefox # then I type in ./firefox and get a connection refused by server. Anymore help in this would be great or if there is a shorter way. I am getting the hang of this just taking a little time. Thanks, Steve

Both of you are close to getting it to work I believe. Steve if you are getting a" connection refused by server" are you trying to run this program from a server? if so that might be some of the problem,or maybe a firewall on the server is stopping you . I'll try and give you the rundown as I would install it on my system running Mandrake 9.1, This is all done from a terminal.
[xxx@localhost xxx]$ cd /home/xxx/programs/MozillaFirebird(enter)
[xxx@localhost MozillaFirebird]$ su
password
root@localhost MozillaFirebird]#./mozilla-firebird (or whatever the shell script is to install or run it)

I believe I saw where FireBird changed to FireFox or FoxFire but the install should be the same, just replace FireBird with FireFox. Hope this helps.

don't try as root!!!!!!!!!!

Read my post. The tarball is uncompressed. It makes its own directory (wherever you uncompressit). You're done! Enter the directory and type the name of the program. firebird <enter key> or firefox <enter key>

Surf.

Mozilla 1.6 seems much snappier for some reason, though. That caught me by surprise.

better to just install by source code i think, as this trouble with extracting and mutilbe cd'ing is solved by the wounderful comand "make install"

This will get you going:

extract the file: tar -xzvf firewhatever #if its a tar.gz
tar -xjvf firewhatever #if its a tar.bz2

enter the directory and type the name of the executable (if you have a color terminal, the exe's should be green). If firefox, type "firefox" without the quotes. It should work. Do this as user. if you want an easy way into it, make a shortcut on your desktop to it or add it to your menu.

If you want an easy way to it from the CLI, as root make a shortcut to a globally accessible directory, like /usr/local or /usr/bin:

ln -s /usr/bin/firefox ~/home/whoeveryoumaybe/forefox/forefox

Then you can type "firefox" from the CLI (or the runbox) too. Or you could wait for the rpm to show up in suse's repository

ok so with red hat linux 9 am i restricted to running only 386 and 686 filetypes?
Whats the deal with that exactly? I managed to get some programs to install but
other programs either dont respond at all or hang my command line session window.

air69buddy said in his original post that he had already unzipped the compressed file and had a directory called "firefox" and he was trying to get it to run the browser for firefox,at least thats what I understood from his original post, so I was trying to get his program to run.,maybe I misunderstood his post,sorry about that if that was the case.

i386 will run on a 386 and up
i686 will run on a P-II, PPro, P-III, P-IV

i686 will not run on a P-I, 486, 386

hi
air69buddy I hope you don't mind if i ask a few questions i think are relevent to this thread, like you i recently have been learning linux by downloading progs then installing them. So my related queries are

it seems a bit messy to download progs to /home then link them to the desktop, my /home is full of directories which i don't use or need to see. Is it good practice to unzip them into /usr and then 'make install' this way they are with all the other progs ? (i know its a bit of windows mentality in me

and the other query is how to link a program into the menu - im using Kde. I read the LQ tutorial (thanks, its excellant) but this could be a useful thing to add to it.

thanks

I see what you were doing. It was right, but not for the Linux version of firebird/firefox. I tried ./blablabla and it didn't work. Tried just the name. It worked. The Linux installs aren't really installs. You just unzip the folder and you're done. You can put it wherever you want to. This goes for Win32 nightlies too. This is actually kinda good, as you know where everything is and you can get rid of it by deleting the directory (and your .phoenix profile)

Ok I can surf with Firefox from the unzipped folder. There is a file in there called firefox and when I click on it the browser opens and I am good to go. Is there a quicker way of bringing this up like an icon? I tried to move and copy the firefox icon onto my desktop but when I click it, it says program not found. Thanks in advance for all the help. Steve