# Installing applications on RHEL6?



## hyler (Jul 31, 2001)

I'm tri-booting my system here with RHEL6 (Desktop) as my OS for all things web related (Browser, Server, Chat, Multimedia, etc.) so that I don't need to expose my Windows OS to the internet.

I'd say I'm at about 80% of where I want to be, but I cannot figure out how to install most of the software I download onto this OS. I've been through all the tutorials, and in attempting to mirror their instructions, I usually always get an error. I don't think I have a single piece of software successfully installed on this OS that wasn't already included with it in the install.

For example, software in tar.gz and bz2 files; Let's say I'm trying to download Pidgin (chat client) I download the tar.bz2, extract them to a folder where I have read-write access to, locate the folder with the cd command, then type "sh install.sh" and get a "no input file" error. Well, I'm sure I missed something, but according to all the tutorials I looked at for installing applications, that's all I should need to do, they never once mentioned anything about an "input file". I'm more than happy to put in the effort to learn this, but it's frustrating when all the sources I look at to learn this OS/Kernel tell me that's all there is to it, but clearly there's something else going on that I need to know.

So where can I find a tutorial that will tell me step by step what I need to do and/or how to do it? Also tried the GUI based Add/Remove software method, all the happens is I click the check box in the software sources repository, it asks for the root password, then it unchecks the box as if nothing happened. Tried plenty of other methods/tutorials as well. Tried using the "sudo" command as directed. Located my pidgin folder via the cd command in terminal, typed "sudo apt-get install pidgin", then it asked for my password for my account, typed it in, then it said "admin is not in the sudoers file" (never saw anything like that mentioned in the instructions I was following) and gave up yet again from there. Any help as the the obvious things that I am missing would be appreciated as I've tried each method I can find for installing several times with no progress in any.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi hyler,

To install a tar.gz file in the directory where you locate it after downloading:
$ gunzip filename.tar.gz
$ tar -xf ./filename.tar
This usually creates a subdirectory of the components. If it is source code, you make have to look for a README or INSTALL file which will tell you how to compile the code from source for which you will usually need the gcc and/or g++ compiler packages installed.

For a bz2 file:
$ bunzip2 filename.tar.bz2
$ tar -xf ./filename.tar
etc.

You need to visit the fedoraforum.org website and learn what is needed to access the repositories and the rpm packaging commands that help you know what is installed and how to work it.

-- Tom


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## DVOM (Jun 21, 2002)

You need to figure out the root password problem before you're going to be able to do anything else.

RedHat, and I assume Fedora (which I have), are different from a distro like ubuntu. In ubuntu I use "sudo apt-get etc", but if I try that in Fedora and it doesn't work, then I'd try just "su" (enter) then the root password (enter) then "apt-get etc"

"Sudo", I believe, is to temporarily grant the user with root permissions. That's the way they do it in ubuntu. 
Fedora and RedHat, OTOH, don't use that tactic, in these distros you use "su" to temporarily log in as root.

At least that's the way I understand it.

Edit: OK, I've done some reading and my advice to first use "su" is correct, but in Fedora you don't use "apt-get", the proper thing is "yum".
So instead of "sudo apt-get install pidgin", then your user password, the correct way to do it is:
"su", (enter), root password (enter)
"yum install pidgin"

See if that works for ya in RH, as far as I know RH and Fedora are fairly similar.


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## thiyagu114 (May 27, 2009)

hyler,

On RHEL6 , If you wanna install packages, you can configure yum repo. this is the best to install the packages.

you can simply install packages, like # _yum install pidgin_

it will download package and install automatically.

you can refer this, http://www.confignotes.com/2011/01/how-to-add-a-repository-manually-in-rhel6/

or else just google this "yum configuration rhel 6" .


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