>I did it!
>I am online surfing with Linux!

Congrats

>1) How do I unpack and install tar files
>I read the FAQ on this but I forgot and cannot find it
>again.

Tarball packages for Linux come most commonly with 3 extensions:

.gz
gzip compressed file. This is the most common. Uncompress it like this: gzip -d package.tar.gz

.bz2
bzip2 compressed file. Generally better compression ration. Uncompress it like this: bzip2 -d package.tar.bz2

.Z
created with the Unix compress utility. You don't see this to often. Uncompress it like this: uncompress package.tar.Z

Now, you'll have a file like package.tar
At this point I often like to list the contents of the file:

tar -tvf package.tar

Make sure the filenames listed start with a directory (and that it's not the same as a directory you already have).
Sometimes people don't bother tarring up the package inside a directory, so it ends up spewing dozens of files & directories all over your working area.

Now that you're sure it will unpack nicely (or you've created a new working directory), untar the file:

tar -xvf package.tar

Now you can cd to the new directory it created. Look for files called README & INSTALL. These will cover the specific installation instructions. In general, it will go something like this:

./configure
make
make install

Hope this helps




In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by ergeorge on 05/04/01 04:39 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

> So I have tried to uncompress it useing this command.
> gzip -dPGPcmdln_6.5.8.Lnx_FW.tar.gz
--------^
You forgot to put a space in!

BTW, there is an easier way to handle bzip2'ed and gzip'ed tar files:

for a 'file.tar.gz' use:

tar -zxvf file.tar.gz

Most modern distributions have a tar that is patched to more easily handle bzip2 compression. So, for 'file.tar.bz2' use:

tar -yxvf file.tar.bz2

somtimes instead, it's not y, but I for bz2, like this:

tar -Ixvf file.tar.bz2

Also BTW, usually there are symlinks, or binaries present for both gzip and bzip2 for more easily uncompressing.

So, for 'file.gz' you might try:

gunzip file.gz

and for 'file.bz2' you might try:

bunzip2 file.bz2

HTH,

~flake


--
U want to really *know* Linux?
<A HREF="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/" target="_new">http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/</A>

Congrats! Welcome to the family!

Now on to the other things...what distro are you using precisely? .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.Z, and .tar.bz2 files are usually source code packages (with slackware, .tgz files are actually precompiled software packages--but that's just slackware). "Installing" them usually involves decompressing them (as described by others before I got here) and then <i>compiling</i> them. Compiling software is rather involved and riddled with problems; I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner. It will be much easier if you could find a place to get precompiled software for your distribution. The distribution's web site is a good place to start...

Kelledin

bash-2.04$ kill -9 1
init: Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?

Mandrake 8.0 is out now. You might 'upgrade'.