Installing Software under PCLOS

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Introduction

Part of what makes PLOS a great distribution is the great work that the "Ripper Gang" does to create RPM packages. All of the packages that they have created can be found in Synaptic. Synaptic (and its backend of apt-get) operate on a principle of repositories. A repository, or repo, is simply a place on the web which is used by Synaptic to figure out what packages are available for install or upgrade. The only officially supported packages can be found in the default ibiblio (or PASS) repositories. Officially speaking, all other packages are not supported. With that being said, there are two repositories that have a significant following in the community; those being Thac's and Ocilen1's repos. If you have to download something that is not in the official repo, check there first - the odds are, you will find the package there. If it is not, then you can always request that particular package via the the package request forum∞.Note: it has been the policy of PCLOS community to only allow access to the package request forum once you surpass the Newbie status. In order to do so, you must participate in the forums some minimal number of posts (I believe ten).

Installing From Source

It is possible that either because of licensing issues or because of other technical problems, the Ripper Gang may decide not to add your requested package to Synaptic. It is also possible that you simply can't wait the few days for the package to appear in Synaptic. In these cases, you may want to install your desired software from source. Note: this is moderately risky and could screw up your system, so user beware. Also, building from source requires you to be fairly comfortable with the command line. As a final warning, building from source will likely require you to install some additional development packages through Synaptic. Development packages are easily identifiable in Synaptic by the -devel or --source suffix (i.e. kdebase-devel, apache-source, libjpeg62-devel).

When software is distributed as source, it is usually contained in one compressed archived file with a .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2, or .tbz extension. in either case, the first step is to unpackage the source. If the source is gzipped (.tar.gz or .tgz extension), then type the following on the command line

If the source is bzipped (.tar.bz2 or .tbz extension) then type the following

This will extract the sources. Next you must change directories to the extracted source directory

If this is a well structured source ball, then this directory will likely have some INSTALL or README or some other text file for documentation purposes. READ IT. This file will usually contain everything from software requirements and hardware requirements to installation procedures. In case your software package does not contain such a text file or you are too impatient to read one, the following sequence will describe the most common steps for building and installing software from source.

This will show you which configuration options are possible for this software package. This will contain everything from the generic options (i.e. --prefix=PREFIX and --libdir-name=LIBNAME) to the more software specific features. Make note of your preferences. Note that PCLOS software is installed in /usr. In order to differentiate your own software from PCLOS official software, it is recommended that you always set --prefix=/usr/local. When you finish noting your list of options, run

where 'your_options' is an actual list of options you want to build with. Normally, this step will be smart enough to figure out if your system is missing some dependent software, in which case, you will get an error indicating so. Make sure you have those dependencies and their --devel counterparts installed through Synaptic first, and rerun the configure step. If all goes well, then you are now ready to build,

which will actually build and link your software. It's possible you may have some errors during this step. If you do, then just use your favorite search engine∞ to see if others have had similar problems before. If building succeeds, then you are ready. To make your life easier, it is highly recommended that you install your application by first creating an RPM out of it. This is easily done via the checkinstall application available in Synaptic. One checkinstall is on your system, run,

and answer the few questions (if unsure, use the defaults). This will simulate the install of the software and create an RPM that could then be used to actually install your software. Now, proceed to the Installing From RPM section below to perform the installation. Note: the installation will not add any menu entries for you. You will have to do that yourself. Congratulations, you have successfully installed your desired program.

For more information on compiling and installing software from source, take a look at the September 2006 issue of PCLinuxOS Magazine∞ pages 21-26. This article also covers creating your own RPMs from source code.

Installing From RPM

Installing from an RPM should be your last resort. Doing so puts your system at a high risk for problems. This is a direct result of the RPM system. RPMs are built with a target system in mind. Since your RPM came from some uknown website, it is obviously not meant for PCLOS. Note: if your system starts misbehaving after installing an external RPM, you will likely not be able to get much help in the help forums.

You can install an RPM in one of two ways: either via KPackage or through the command line

To remove the installed RPM, you can once again use KPackage or use the command line

Note: when installing an RPM from command line, you are using the RPM file name. When you are removing an RPM from the command line, you are using the package name.

Good luck!