Everytime I get a program for Linux it comes in .RPM format or .TAR.GZ format. How do I install from that?
Monday, July 13th, 2009 at
00:31
My Linux distro is ‘Ubuntu’, when I double-click the .RPM files I get told by my system that it is not a valid archive. When I extract the .TAR.GZ file I get a bunch of files I cant do anything (productive) with. Please help.
Tagged with: double click • Linux • linux distro • rpm • valid archive
Filed under: rpm
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The simple answer:
RPM is a package format pioneered for RedHat. There are several program that can install them. At the command line type "rpm –install <filename>".
Tarballs or a .tar.gz file is a compressed tar file. Usually this means it is the source code for the program. These are the basic steps and are typed at the command line:
gunzip file in a directory
run "./configure" if it is present.
run "make"
run "make install" as root
Now here is where it gets complicated. Ubuntu does not use rpms for installing software. Instead it uses the third major packaging method .deb. The format was created for the Debian distribution, on which Ubuntu is based. It uses an a different program called dkpg to install software. You likely do not have the program "rpm" installed since Ubuntu uses a different package manager.
See the link below for more information on how to install software on your your system.
format your pc