Installing a file - getting stuck

[IAMTubby]

Hello,
I'm getting stuck while trying to install VLC from the .tar.xz file found in http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-sources.html.

These are the steps I found from the internet
1)tar Jxvf <name_of_.tar.xz file>
2)cd into_the_folder_created
3)./configure
This checks if all the required packages/softwares/libraries/frameworks are present in the system.
These are collectively called dependancies right? Correct me if I'm wrong.
For me, when I do this step, it says

configure: error: No package 'dbus-1' found.

I tried doing

sudo apt-get install dbus-1

, but it says

E: Unable to locate package dbus-1

.

I'm stuck. What next ?
4)Typically, you are supposed to do these steps next right ?
make clean
make
But for me it says

make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.

5)make install
It says

make: *** No rule to make target `install'.  Stop.

How do I proceed ? Please advise.

[oldfred]

There are multiple ways to install software in Linux.

The easiest and best way is to use the repository. Most software is available in the repository and has been verified to work with Ubuntu.

You can install from Software Center, from synaptic (now you also have to install synaptic), and from command line.

#refresh
apt-get update #resync package index
apt-get upgrade #newest versions of all packages, update must be run first

sudo apt-get install vlc

If you want to use synaptic

sudo apt-get install synaptic

Then you can use synaptic as a menu choice.

Only if you cannot find software in the repository then you should look for a .deb and the last choice would be to download, compile & install an application.

[IAMTubby]

Thanks for the reply Sir.
Hmm.. but I wouldn't like to install it that way.
In fact, I just uninstalled my vlc, so that I could install it this way.
Please can you help me in this direction. Thanks.

[Bucky Ball]

Are you in the correct directory when you are untarring the file? Sounds obvious but ...

[IAMTubby]

Are you in the correct directory when you are untarring the file? Sounds obvious but ...

When I untarred, a folder called vlc-2.0.3 was created. I cd'ed into that folder. Isn't that correct ?
The trouble starts in ./configure.

[spjackson]

There's no point trying to "make" when configure has failed. configure's job is to create the Makefile. If configure fails to create the Makefile, make won't work without one.

A big difference between installing pre-built packages and compiling yourself is that the latter method often requires the development packages (e.g. C/C++ headers) of dependencies, rather than just the runtime package (e.g. shared libraries).

From your error message, it looks like you need libdbus-1-dev. I don't know what else you might need because I've never built vlc, nor read the instructions for doing so.

[oldfred]

Some like to compile & install their own software. Then then may get a newer version, but are testing as new version may not work with older parts in Ubuntu.

Current version in 12.04 is vlc (2.0.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) .

[IAMTubby]

From your error message, it looks like you need libdbus-1-dev. I don't know what else you might need because I've never built vlc, nor read the instructions for doing so.

Thanks for that. Yes this was able to run ./configure for a longer while, but next error it says

configure: error: Could not find lua.

I tried doing

sudo apt-get install lua-devel.x86_64

but it says

E: Unable to locate package lua-devel.x86_64

Will you be able to give the exact name of the package to install like last time ?
Thanks.

[IAMTubby]

Ok, I shall try the steps mentioned in
http://www.lua.org/faq.html

[spjackson]

configure: error: Could not find lua.

I tried doing

sudo apt-get install lua-devel.x86_64

but it says

E: Unable to locate package lua-devel.x86_64

Will you be able to give the exact name of the package to install like last time ?

liblua5.1-0-dev