How do I install WinRar on my Linux OS?
Thursday, May 27th, 2010 at
21:12
I need to install WinRar or a another program that will unzip my .rar files. I went to rarlab.com, and downloaded the rar for linux (both of them), however, there was no installer in them or if there was I couldn’t use it. Can anyone help me?
Tagged with: Linux • rar files • winrar
Filed under: Linux
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for linux you need a program called unrar. In order to help you we’re going to need to know a few things. First of all which linux distribution are you using? This is the most important thing we need to know, but without it I still might be able to help you here.
Secondly, Did you download the source code? Does the file you downloaded say ".tar.gz" or ".tar.bz2" on the end of it? If so, you’ve probably got yourself the source code.
In this case you need to compile it in order to install it. I suggest you get back to me with the information on which distro you’re using as it will be much simpler for you to find prepackaged binaries than it will be to follow the instructions I’m about to give you (if you’re a noob.)
Are you familiar with using the command line? If so follow these steps.
Open a terminal and navigate to the folder you’ve saved your source file in.
extract it using the following command:
tar xvjf name_of_file.tar.bz2
If the file ends with .tar.gz then you need to replace the j with a z:
tar xvzf name_of_file.tar.gz
Bash uses tab completion, so if you type the first few letters of the file and hit tab it should fill out the file name for you. If it doesn’t you’ve somehow failed to get into the correct directory and you need to study up on some basics here: http://linuxcommand.org
If you see it extract you need to change directories (cd) into the folder created by this extraction:
cd unrar-versionnumber-blah-de-blah
whatever it’s called, tab completion will work for this command as well.
then you need to run the following command:
./configure ; make ; sudo make install
Let that run, if you hit errors, well then tough luck, you got some work ahead of you to fix it. If not, you’ll end up with a freshly installed and usable unrar utility, although you may have to run it from the command line as such:
unrar filename.rar
to learn more about your new command and how to use it:
man unrar
Like I said. This can be a difficult process if you hit errors and I probably can’t help you as it could be any number of problems and I’m not familiar with your set up. Please don’t dawdle in telling us which distro you’re using, as this could save you a whole big ass heap of trouble.