Installng tarballs

[SiMuLaCrUm]

OK, I am stuck. I want to install the newest version of Pidgin (2.5.1) instead of the one that Xubuntu came with, but apt-get won't find it, and I have no idea how to compile from a tarball. Help please
I'm still rather new to Linux, having used Windows for the past 12 or so years of my life...

[worker201]

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tar zxf tarball.tar.gz
cd tarball
./configure
make
make install

Obviously, you'll want to substitute the name of the actual archive and the resulting folder.  Use jxf instead of zxf if it is a bzip2 archive.  You will need to be admin to run make install, so you should probably su or sudo that step.

Of course, these are only the barest instructions, which may not actually work at all.  Try:

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./configure -h

to find configuration options.  And even the crappiest of programs has an install file somewhere.

[SiMuLaCrUm]

I try running make but it says no target and no makefile found  :|

[worker201]

You should be in the directory where the tarball is located, yes.

[SiMuLaCrUm]

OK,I got it extracted, but configure told me that the C compiler could not create executables. And make won't work...

[davidnix71]

debget.com reports there are no pidgin packages available

xubuntu uses debian packages, I assume.  Going to Pidgin's home site also shows no debian distros.

That means you have the Windows package. Your only option would be to get the RedHat Fedora package and use
the alien package converter here:

http://www.ubuntu-unleashed.com/2008/03/howto-convert-redhat-and-fedora-rpm.html

[SiMuLaCrUm]

Eh? It downloaded it for me, and the windows version is an EXE file. I have it on my windows machine. When I clicked download, it downloaded me a tarball...

EDIT: Ah, yes further exploration of pidgin's site reveals that it does not have an Ubuntu version, only Windows, Fedora, CentOS and Mac.

Edit X2: The Fedora file is a .repo file... no .rpm file...

[worker201]

There's a link to download the source, too.  Source is for version 2.5.2, and the filename is pidgin-2.5.2.tar.bz2.  Assuming that file has been downloaded to your home folder:

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cd ~
ls
tar jxf pidgin*
cd pidgin*
./configure
make
make install

The "C compiler cannot create executables" error comes with a line number.  You didn't happen to write that down, did you?  If not, run it again.  Pretty sure that has to do with an autoconf versioning problem, since that's where the error message appears in the code, but it could be something else.

In case anyone's interested, I could not install this on my Mac because I don't have glib installed.

[SiMuLaCrUm]

A number, where? Is it in the config.log file?
Because it only showed this.

[worker201]

It is supposed to give line numbers in your terminal window.  On my computer, it gives the line numbers in the config.log also.  But anyway, it's clear where it failed.

Do a test:
copy the following source into a textfile, call it test.c and save it
http://www.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/c/hworld.html
from the command line, in the folder where you saved the file:

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gcc test.c

Does that work?  What's the name of the file it created?  Should be called a.out.  If it is, try running it by typing:

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./a.out

Did that work?

Also, why does Ubuntu not have gawk?  GNU programs just not good enough for them?

[SiMuLaCrUm]

[code]sim@sim-laptop:~$ gcc check.c
check.c:3:18: error: stdio.h: No such file or directory
check.c: In function

[solemnwarning]

Install build-essential from APT, then try, installing pidgin again

[SiMuLaCrUm]

Wait, what? Is that a command?

Edit: Tried it, says "target 'apt' is not a directory."

[solemnwarning]

erm, apt-get install build-essential

[SiMuLaCrUm]

OK. Config got further this time, I need GLib 2.0 installed.
sudo apt-get install glib?

cos that doesn't work...