Help with Installing software .tar on GNU/Linux

[ILuvMeSomeTux]

Hi guys. I am a newbie as of like, today and I am having some trouble installing software that ends in .tar.gz or .tar.gz.bz2. I will try to be as specific as I know how to be. I am using Ubuntu 8.10, 64 bit (whatever that means). The file locations for the .tar files are /home/tafolla/src/ the two files I am currently TRYING to work with right now are pixeldemo-1.0.699-linux.x86-64cmpt.tar.bz2 and LightZone-3.5.tar.gz. In the terminal I can go as far as ./configre and thats where it stops. No matter what software I am using, nothing will do the ./configure. I should prolly go in order.
First I do cd /home/tafolla/src/ then ls then depending on which file I am doing I do the tar -zxvf or jxvf everything goes according to plan there. Then I do cd <directory> which ever it is. Neither of these two software things have README or INSTALL files.....so once I get to ./configure it says bash: ./configure: No such file or directory

I typed it perfectly...I swear..I have done it several times and had someone else try to and we both get the same thing!!! Please help. Thanks!


Taffy

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Execute ls <extracted_directory> and post output here.

[ILuvMeSomeTux]

tafolla@Tafolla:~/src/LightZone$ ls
dcraw libJAI.so libLCTIFF.so LightZone_16.png
jh.jar libLCArrays.so libLinux.so LightZone_32.png
jre libLCCache.so libmlib_jai.so LightZone-forkd
lcjai.jar libLCFileUtil.so libSegment.so lightzonehelp.jar
libDCRaw.so libLCJNI.so lightcrafts.jar mlibwrapper_jai.jar
libFASTJAI.so libLCJPEG.so lightcrafts-linux.jar script-api.jar
libfbf.so libLCMS.so LightZone substance-lite.jar

[devils casper]

libfbf.so libLCMS.so LightZone substance-lite.jar

Is LightZone a file or folder? What is in it?

ls -l ~/src/LightZone/LightZone

[ILuvMeSomeTux]

Well, it depends on which step of the process you want to know about that "LightZone" after I do the tar -zxvf it creates a Folder called LightZone, but also, inside this folder is a Shell Script called LightZone. I did the ls -l ~/src/LightZone/LighZone and this is what it said to me
tafolla@Tafolla:~/src/LightZone$ ls -l ~src/LightZone/LightZone
ls: cannot access ~src/LightZone/LightZone: No such file or directory

[devils casper]

Have you tried to execute that script?
Execute this

cd ~/src/LightZone
chmod +x LightZone
./LightZone

[ILuvMeSomeTux]

I executed that an this is what it did
tafolla@Tafolla:~/src/LightZone$ cd ~/src/LightZone chmod +x LightZone ./LightZone
tafolla@Tafolla:~/src/LightZone$


Nothing else. Is there like a terminal code for dummies or something because I totally don't understand the chmod +x man, I was doing good to be able to remember the zxvf and stuff....but anyways

[saivin]

I executed that an this is what it did
tafolla@Tafolla:~/src/LightZone$ cd ~/src/LightZone chmod +x LightZone ./LightZone

Buddy that's not all in one line!
First you go to that directory with cd. Once you are in that directory, do

ls -l

It will show what file permissions each file have. chmod +x is only to give execute permission to a file. See below the file permission for 'iceweasel' on my system.

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8402 2009-02-04 15:12 iceweasel

It means the file by name 'iceweasel' is executable.

Hopefully the 'LightZone' file should have execute permission. While you are in that directory, try

./LightZone

This will execute the file LightZone.

[ILuvMeSomeTux]

Well, I did warn everyone that I am new into this =) I have very little understanding about this whole thing but, that last thing did work and it asked for my serial number and its good to go. Thanks! Is this proceedure the same for almost everything?

[saivin]

Is this proceedure the same for almost everything?

If its a tar package and has install script like the above, yes.

For some you may have to take the "./configure -> make -> make install" path. In such cases, the directory after you do zxvf or jvxf will definitely have README and/or INSTALL files to give you further informations.

But, apart from such specific (may be natively unsupported) softwares, mostly your distro will have a packaging system and package management system to install/uninstall softwares. Eg. Ubuntu/Debian will have .deb packages and Synaptic/Adept programs to install/uninstall the softwares.

Anyway, its good that you could install your software.