how do you install a program in SUSE Linux?

Question

Ive tried tarballs and the executable ones, forgot the name of the extention.
None of them seem to install correctly, i always am missing a dependency or somthing.
What might I be doing wrong? I'm running in root. I just clean installed the OS, shouldn't it come with a method to install software?

Could you walk me through an installation that has worked on your SUSE linux machine?

Answer 1

Suse uses yast2 to install RPMs, go to kmenu>system>control centre(yast)>software management
a window will come up, in the top left is a button called filter, if you click on the dropdown arrow and choose package groups, this will give a list of the package groups in the left hand pane and list the programmes in the right hand pane. If you click on a group the programme list will change to show the programmes in that group, just check the box for the ones you want to install and click accept (bottom right), Suse will prompt you for the install CDs.
If you know the name of the programme you want to install from the CDs type it's name in the search box, make sure you type it correctly.
This is usefull if there are dependencies and suse has them on disk. You can also uninstall programmes here by clicking the tick box until a dustbin appears in it then click accept (be carefull not to unistall any system critical programmes like kernel or some of the libraries).

for more info on this go to kmenu>suse help centre & type installing software in the search bar and the 1st 2 items should cover this.

For software not on the CDs, I would prefer to download a RPM, try and get one that is specific to the suse version you are running, just google for it. when you have downloaded it just click on it (in konqueror) and then click on the install with yast button.

You probably aren't doing anything wrong installing tarballs, because you are getting dependency issues so the ./config, make, make install commands are running ok. You only need to be root for make install to install the programme on the whole system for all users although usually this is the case. After you have extracted the tar ball (right click on it and select actions>extract to (or extract here), it's a good idea to check out the readme or install file to see if there are any special installation requirements, then open a terminal and:
cd (to the directory the programm is in)
./configure
make
su
(root password)
make install
you can then type make clean (you don't need to do this) to clean up the installation files. If you have any dependency issues check the output for the libraries needed then search for them either on the installation CDs using software management or google for them.
Hope this helps if you have any specific problem with a programme email me, also join this forum for help with Suse.
http://www.suseforums.net/index.php?&&CODE=autologin&fromreg=1
This all may seem a little complicated but there are sound reasons why linux works this way.

Answer 2

You should probably use a utility called yum. I've tried it on Fedora, but I've never used SUSE. I imagine it's about the same for both. To use it, you type a command like
yum install name-of-package-or-program
Read about it at these sites:
http://www.novell.com/products/linuxpackages/suselinux/yum.html
http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/
Also, try poking around the desktop menus on your computer to see if there's something that says "Install Applications." That will probably give you a GUI interface to some package manager. GUIs are better for package managers because you get to see what's available without hunting too far.
Good luck!

Answer 3

don't get mad for the truth. your people talk a lot and they are the biggest criminals.