OT: Help me with Linux Yellow Dog (extreme "noob" level)

[Taustin Powers]

I just installed Yellow Dog 5.0.1 on my Playstation 3, and I am now becoming painfully aware of the fact that I don't know {censored} about Linux.

 

I am trying to get my Bluetooth keyboard running, but it's not supported "out of the box".

 

I learned that I need to "install Bluez", so I tried doing that....and realized that I have no idea how to even install something in Linux. I downloaded all the file packages (.tar.gz I think) from the Bluez website. I double-clicked on those, and they created folders with a whole bunch of files.

 

Then....I read something about the command "./configure", so I typed that in one of the folders and some stuff happened. Now I don't know what to do, and how to go about this whole thing.

 

Any tips? Any easy-to-understand tutorials for this kind of stuff?

 

Thanks!

[Goofball Jones]

Yes, the first place I turn to when trying to configure an obscure version of Linux on a machine that isn't suppose to take outside OS's is a bass forum.

 

I'm sure the answers will come pouring in....

 

[Taustin Powers]

Thanks for this helpful comment.

 

This is not the the only nor the first place where I have looked for help.

 

There are some Linux enthusiasts on this board who could potentially offer helpful advice and/or point me in the right direction to get such advice.

 

I do hope you feel better about yourself after making this insightful and helpful contribution.

 

 

EDIT: Not to mention that you don't even know what you are talking about, re: "a machine that isn't suppose to take outside OS's". The PS3 is officially open for Linux installations, supported by Sony.

[Goofball Jones]

 

Calm down. I was just making a joke.

[SteveyDevey]

Ya know, I thought you were someone else, so I was already becoming tired at the idea of answering your question.

 

But since you're not that someone, I'll tell you want I can.

 

 

I haven't looked into running linux on a PS3, mostly because i don't have a PS3. So, there's your grain of salt.

 

There are a lot of different ways to install software in linux, depending on which distribution you're running. (Technically you could use any of them you want, on any distribution, but they just come built in to some) For example, a lot of software in the Redhat/Fedora world (and derivatives) is packaged in RPMs. (Redhat Package Management) They contain all of the pre-compiled files you may need, and instructions for the package management system to put them where they need to go, etc. Yellowdog is based on redhat/etc, so you should be able to use RPMs to install a lot of software.

 

If the site who distributes it doesn't list an RPM for it though, this may not be one of those pieces of software. Getting it in .tar.gz means that you're probably getting the sourcecode to compile it yourself. The fact that you did a ./configure in one of the directories means you certainly did get the source, and that you're going to have to compile it if you can't find the binary for it somewhere on the net.

 

If you are stuck compiling, there should probably be a README file in the base directory of the archive you originally downloaded (the tar.gz). Check that, as it will probably have pretty decent directions (certainly better than I'd be able to give you).

 

For what it's worth though, it looks like there may be a package you could try before you jump into learning to compile an app in linux. You probably want the "redhat" one.

 

http://www.bluez.org/packages.html

[Taustin Powers]

I'll see what I can do with that package - thanks!

 

Another question - I downloaded a similar archive with the sourcecode for an SNES emulator (SNES9F or something)....I managed to compile the code and create an executible file. But when I try to run the executible file, nothing happens....any spontaneous idea what might have gone wrong?

(I know this is likely impossible to answer without looking at the files, but maybe there's a typical newbie mistake that would result in exactly this situation, so I thought I would at least ask...)

[misterhinkydink]

If 'configure' finished without error you need to type 'make'. If that completes without error 'make install'.

[lug]

gzip -d "decompresses and leaves a .tar file

 

tar -xvf will untar the files and directories. Hopefully there is a README file somewhere for more detailed instructions. you can view this with

 

more README (pay attention to uppercase/lowercase)

 

edit: If no starting directory is given (where to untar the .tar file) from the source of the tar file, untar it in the root directory. You should also be root (superuser) when you do this.

[Taustin Powers]

Awesome, I will try those things when I get home from work.

 

Thanks for the help, guys!

[misterhinkydink]

 

gzip -d "decompresses and leaves a .tar file tar -xvf will untar the files and directories. Hopefully there is a README file somewhere for more detailed instructions. you can view this with more README (pay attention to uppercase/lowercase) edit: If no starting directory is given (where to untar the .tar file) from the source of the tar file, untar it in the root directory. You should also be root (superuser) when you do this.

 

 

You should untar these in your home directory and build them as yourself, not 'root' user. When you install either 'su' to root and 'make install' or 'sudo make install'. You may have to add yourself to 'sudoers'. Do things under 'root' user only when necessary. Don't add directories/files to the '/' directory.

[James Hart]

wow... Yellow Dog Linux. I use to run that on my PowerPC Macs back 10 years or so.

[SteveyDevey]

gzip -d "decompresses and leaves a .tar file tar -xvf will untar the files and directories. Hopefully there is a README file somewhere for more detailed instructions. you can view this with more README (pay attention to uppercase/lowercase) edit: If no starting directory is given (where to untar the .tar file) from the source of the tar file, untar it in the root directory. You should also be root (superuser) when you do this.

For the record, you can usually use gunzip to unzip.

 

You won't want to untar your archive at the root directory though. One pet peeve of mine as far as linux is concerned, is not knowing where different distros want things installed, so I can't tell you exactly where you might want to put it, but / isn't it.

 

What shell are you using? If it's anything decent, it'll have tab-completion. This won't give you the ability to DO anything new, but it makes typing things out in the shell infinitely easier. For example, the next time you're in the middle of typing out a long file/folder name, just hit tab. It will fill it in, up to an ambiguous character... Say you've got two files, one called file1.txt, and the other called file2.txt. if you do something like "rm f" it will then fill in up to: "rm file", since it wouldn't know if you want file 1 or two. if you then type the number of the file you want, you can hit tab again to have it fill in the rest.

 

This is all contingent on the files/folders you have relative to where you are in the filesystem obviously, but it will absolutely save you a crapload of time if you spend any amount of your day in a shell. Period.

[allan grossman]

Most versions of tar now understand gzip compression and will filter the archive through gzip if you add the proper switch. All you have to do is move the file to your home directory and

 

tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz

 

guess what the 'z' is for, Yer Majesty

 

If the application is compiled from source it generally doesn't matter where the source files are placed as the scripts will look for files in a location relative to the Makefile. I build in my home directory as well. Not good practice to make directories under /