Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Jess Tan · Guest

when i download vlc tar file to hard disk and untar the file. when go to make and make install vlc file, it doesn't work for it?

is it VLC can support on puppy linux or not?

what is the solution??

Bancobusto · Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 168 Location: Vancouver Island

I was kind of wondering the same thing, Jess Tan.

Check out this thread

http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?t=1373[url][/url]

Jess Tan · Guest

Thanks your link. but i'm still very blur blur about the past forum because i'm newbie for puppy linux.

Can you explain more detail for that?

Jess Tan · Guest

Thanks your link. but i'm still very blur blur about the past forum because i'm newbie for puppy linux.

Can you explain more detail for that?

Bancobusto · Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 168 Location: Vancouver Island

I am still trying to figure it out myself - following the suggested links is the only advice that I can give you for now.

It'll happan, it's just a matter of trial and error - just like everything else in life, the only way to get good at anything is to make a whole lot of mistakes along the way! Laughing

I wish that I could explain the technical details as to why it would be difficult, but chances are I will only confuse you more as I am a newbie still myself, y'know?

Happy hunting.

Ian · Posted: Wed 27 Jul 2005, 11:47 Post subject:

A quick lesson concerning Linux V Win installing programs.

Linux differs from Windows in the way that programs are installed.

Windows uses its own installer Linux has a few methods.

In Linux you can install a program using installers that have been created by the different distributions such as RedHat or Debian to name a couple or you can obtain the source code and install the program yourself, something you cannot do with Windows.

The source code for a program usually comes in a tar, Tape ARchive, gz, Gnu Zip, format sometimes called a tarball.
This tarball usually contains some files to help you take the source code and put the whole thing together as a working program.

There are three steps that are usually, but not always, followed to compile the program depending how it is put together. If it is a large program with lots of different files it need these processes to automate the installation as doing it by hand would be too time consuming and prone to errors.

The usual steps are Configure, for which a configure file is supplied, next is Make, which follows the instructions in a supplied makefile and yhen Make Install which installs all the parts where they are designed to go according to the creater/s of the program.

If the instructions tell you to run ' make ' and then ' make install ' these are the commands that you use but for these commands to run the tools need to be installed in your version of Linux, at present Puppy does not have these tools installed therefor when you try to run these commands Puppy does not know what you are talking about so it cannot follow those orders.

If you wish to have programs that you have downloaded in .tar.gz format and that require compiling you will need a Linux distrubition that has the required tools installed such as Mandrake or Vector Linux or one of the bigger distributions.

The reason Puppy does not have all these tools is because they occupy a fair amount of disk space and as Barry set out to create a small version of Linux these and many larger programs and utilities could not be included.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

BarryK · Posted: Thu 28 Jul 2005, 06:16 Post subject:

But, there is something to look forward to -- see News page for 28 July.

Guest · Guest

Good luck

Bancobusto · Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 168 Location: Vancouver Island

Looking forward to it, sounds interesting Very Happy