Hello all. I am a newbie user, so please remember that I am unfamiliar with acronyms, steps (to take), etc. I am running a Lenovo 110 thinkpad. I am going banana's; on my prior laptop, I regularly installed tarball programs on/in Elementary OS with no issues, through Gdebi. I got a new machine (for me), and did an install of Elementary. I then installed Gdebi. I then downloaded a few tarball programs, and I am having an impossible time of installing anything. The popup window says: (program x,y,z) is not a debian package The MIME type of this file is 'application/x-tar and can not be installed on this system *** In other words, Gdebi will not install any downloaded tarball programs; extracting files doesn't help; I don't see install options, etc. I never had this issue with Gdebi on my old laptop I have googled for answers, but the workarounds are either too complex for my understanding, or finding a thread to address this popup window are next to nothing. I want a way to easily install my downloaded tarball files. Again, I have a very basic understanding of linux. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration
Hey NDL Well gdebi will work on .deb files so thats why you got the error "(program x,y,z) is not a debian package" If the file you want to install comes in a tar.bz2, tar.gz or similar format you will need to extract it first. You can do this one of two ways. In terminal run the below Code (Text): $ sudo tar zxvf Your-Filename.tar.gz You may also be able to just right click on the file and select extract here. Once its all extracted just follow the instructions of the README or INSTALL file that was inside your extracted file. Usually it will ask you to run the below but double check. Code (Text): $ cd FileName $ sudo ./configure $ sudo make $ sudo make install You may not even need to install it. Its possible you may run your program with right click > Run. Good luck!
First and foremost, I thank you for your time and quick reply. For some reason, I am not getting the right click > Run as an option. Even with extracted files, I am getting an "Open in" option; cut, copy, bookmark, etc. No run option, no install option, etc. This seems odd to me; I have never had problems installing programs on prior laptops running Elementary or Ubuntu.
Hey once you have extracted all the files there should be a file that you can right click on and select run. This file could be called anything like Setup-Linux.sh for example. What are you trying to install and I could take a look
That's very nice of you...thanks! Here's a sample screenshot of what I am getting, irrespective of what I attempt to install (picture of tarball and extracted files)
Hey NDL Ok so on your second screenshot where you have right clicked the clipgrab.bz2. Second option from the bottom is "Extract Here" you should click that first, then you will be able to install the app. Looking at the docs for clipgrab they advise the below installation in terminal; Code (Text): wget http://download.clipgrab.de/clipgrab-3.4.9.tar.gz tar xvf clipgrab-3.4.9.tar.gz cd clipgrab-3.4.9 sudo chmod +x clipgrab-* sudo ./clipgrab-3.4.2.x86_64 Although just a FYI there is an official PPA for clipgrab so the easiest way to install would be running the below or just add the clipgrab PPA and search for clipgrab in AppCentre. Code (Text): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:clipgrab-team/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install clipgrab Your first screenshot looks like a folder so you wouldn't be able to install by right clicking that. You will need to go into the folder and find the actual file to install it. Again there is an official gnomebaker PPA so prob easier to just install as below; Code (Text): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnomebaker/stable sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install gnomebaker
Aid, you've been extremely helpful and generous with your time. Thank you! Hey...I hope I am not pushing my luck by asking, but there's one last program I wondered about: Tor Browser. I have tried installing through the app center, but their version doesn't work; neither does synaptic's. I downloaded the tarball...extracted the files, but I didn't see an "install" or "run" option. Any ideas? Again, thanks for your time
Hey NDL If you want to install from tarball first open terminal and make sure you are in correct directory for example if the file is in your downloads then enter Code (Text): cd Downloads Then we need to extract the contents Code (Text): tar xf Downloads/tor-browser-linux64-7.5.3_en-US.tar.xz Now change directory into the new one that was just created. Code (Text): cd tor-browser_en-US Here you should read the contents of the .desktop file. Even though I am providing a guide you should still read this. Code (Text): cat start-tor-browser.desktop You can now run the app Code (Text): ./start-tor-browser.desktop Also you can copy that .desktop file from the Tor dir wherever you like and it will work as a launcher for the app
Aid: Thanks for your time. I bookmarked this thread, as you have enclosed the steps (terminal codes) I would need to install most any program. Thank you again for your helpful assistance .
