How to install from .tar.gz files in Linux Mint?

thejerwin

I just installed Linux mint on my old desktop. It was due for an update; it's been running Windows XP for 10+ years.

My problem lies in installing software. I'm trying to install this and this but I don't know how to install from the extracted folders. I've never spent any time in the Linux shell.

Jonathan50

Use `tar` to extract tarballs.
(LM is based on Ubuntu)

tar -xvzf tarball.tar.gz

(command from http://askubuntu.com/questions/25347/what-command-do-i-need-to-unzip-extract-a-tar-gz-file)

Last edited by Jonathan50 (Oct. 24, 2015 20:07:14)

GwiddleWeb

There are a few things in Linux that you ought to know about:

There is not really the theory of “installing and uninstalling” as there is in Windows
There are however, package managers such as Aptitude and Yum

Linux Mint has apt installed - the backbone of which is dpkg. If there is a .deb package available for your architecture, you can probably install it.

For Net Reponsibility, you need to download this .deb file. This can be done with the following command in the terminal:

wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/responsibility/files/net-responsibility/3.0.3/net-responsibility_3.0.3-0_i386.deb

This'll download the package to your current directory. The next thing to do is to unpack and “install”, which is done with dpkg. This can be done with the following command:

sudo dpkg -i net-responsibility_3.0.3-0_i386.deb

However, this may be met with the error of “Unmet dependencies” - If this happened, you will also need to execute the following.

sudo apt-get -f install

—-

Java 8 is different. There is a package by Webupd8team which makes this easier. Execute the following commands and follow the onscreen prompts:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

Hope this helps.

thejerwin

GwiddleWeb wrote:
There are a few things in Linux that you ought to know about:

There is not really the theory of “installing and uninstalling” as there is in Windows
There are however, package managers such as Aptitude and Yum

Linux Mint has apt installed - the backbone of which is dpkg. If there is a .deb package available for your architecture, you can probably install it.

For Net Reponsibility, you need to download this .deb file. This can be done with the following command in the terminal:
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/responsibility/files/net-responsibility/3.0.3/net-responsibility_3.0.3-0_i386.deb
This'll download the package to your current directory. The next thing to do is to unpack and “install”, which is done with dpkg. This can be done with the following command:
sudo dpkg -i net-responsibility_3.0.3-0_i386.deb
However, this may be met with the error of “Unmet dependencies” - If this happened, you will also need to execute the following.
sudo apt-get -f install
—-

Java 8 is different. There is a package by Webupd8team which makes this easier. Execute the following commands and follow the onscreen prompts:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer
Hope this helps.

Thanks! I managed to get it installed from the dev's ppa a few days ago, before I read this.

ChocolatePi

That being said, if you want to compile from source, you can run the comm

Jonathan50 wrote:
Use `tar` to extract tarballs.
(LM is based on Ubuntu)
tar -xvzf tarball.tar.gz
(command from http://askubuntu.com/questions/25347/what-command-do-i-need-to-unzip-extract-a-tar-gz-file)

This is correct, however, iirc, you need to gunzip it first.
You can usually do this to build software from source if you need to

./configure
make
make install

Jonathan50

ChocolatePi wrote:
That being said, if you want to compile from source, you can run the comm
Jonathan50 wrote:
Use `tar` to extract tarballs.
(LM is based on Ubuntu)
tar -xvzf tarball.tar.gz
(command from http://askubuntu.com/questions/25347/what-command-do-i-need-to-unzip-extract-a-tar-gz-file)
This is correct, however, iirc, you need to gunzip it first.
You can usually do this to build software from source if you need to
./configure
make
make install

z flag runs it through gzip, so `tar -xzf tarball.tar.gz` is equivalent to:
mkdir tarball && gzip tarball.tar.gz -c | tar -xC tarball

zcat tarball.tar.gz | tar -x

Also if you have a recent version of tar the GZ or XZ compression is auto detected.

(Edit: That feeling when you see a 1-2 year old post of yours with bad information and feel a need to fix it even though noone will ever read it again apart from you)

Last edited by Jonathan50 (Aug. 15, 2017 02:21:59)

ChocolatePi

Jonathan50 wrote:
ChocolatePi wrote:
That being said, if you want to compile from source, you can run the comm
Jonathan50 wrote:
Use `tar` to extract tarballs.
(LM is based on Ubuntu)
tar -xvzf tarball.tar.gz
(command from http://askubuntu.com/questions/25347/what-command-do-i-need-to-unzip-extract-a-tar-gz-file)
This is correct, however, iirc, you need to gunzip it first.
You can usually do this to build software from source if you need to
./configure
make
make install
z flag runs it through gzip, so `tar -xzf tarball.tar.gz` is equivalent to:
mkdir tarball && gzip tarball.tar.gz -c | tar -xC tarball
Also if you have a recent version of tar the GZ or XZ compression is auto detected.

Thanks. Good to know!

lutrekako

Jonathan50 wrote:
Use `tar` to extract tarballs.
(LM is based on Ubuntu)
tar -xvzf tarball.tar.gz
(command from http://askubuntu.com/questions/25347/what-command-do-i-need-to-unzip-extract-a-tar-gz-file)

If you need to decompress a file you can use just

tar -xf tarball.tar.gz

I read https://tutorials.technology/tutorials/06-How-to-XZ-a-directory-for-maximum-compression.html this guide on how to compress and decompress

Hope it helps!!

Last edited by lutrekako (Dec. 18, 2016 22:52:03)

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