Help on installing things?

[Logank9k]

Well, I've just installed Ubuntu, and think it's way better than windows. I'm still learning and could use some help. I looked up some tutorials for installing things, and I tried to install BitTorrent for Linux. ( program that downloads things about 10x as fast ) I get as far as unzipping it and doing the ./configure command, but after that it says:

bash: ./configure: No such file or directory

I thought it was a command to configure it on your system, but it's a file I guess. This is very confusing for me, and would be excellent if someone could point out what I'm doing wrong. :D

Thanks in advance, Logan

[coffeecat]

You've downloaded the source code for Bittorrent and you're trying to compile it? Oh dear. Don't worry - a lot of newcomers make the same mistake.

Do you have a good internet connection? Go to Applications > Add/Remove. Select 'All Available Applications' in 'Show'. Search for 'bittorrent', mark it for installation, and 'Apply changes'. That's it. :)

When you've finished exploring Add/Remove, have a look in System > Adminstration > Synaptic.

Edit: but if you know all this and really want to do it the hard way, you have to cd into the directory that was created when you unpacked the source code package. 'configure' is a small exectable script, and you have to preface 'configure' with ./ to tell bash to run it in the current directory.

[Logank9k]

Ah, thank you very much! It works now.

[groovete]

Transmission-gtk, a lightweight BitTorrent client, is installed by default in Ubuntu. If you prefer Bittorrent you may install it through Synaptic.

[coffeecat]

Ah, thank you very much! It works now.

By the way, I'm sure you've realised this by now, but it needs to be made clear. Add/Remove didn't install what you had downloaded. It downloaded a pre-compiled package of bittorrent. You will probably only need to download and compile source-code for a few unusual apps not in the Ubuntu repositories. Or you may never have to do that at all.

[oldos2er]

Well, I've just installed Ubuntu, and think it's way better than windows. I'm still learning and could use some help. I looked up some tutorials for installing things, and I tried to install BitTorrent for Linux. ( program that downloads things about 10x as fast ) I get as far as unzipping it and doing the ./configure command, but after that it says:

bash: ./configure: No such file or directory

I thought it was a command to configure it on your system, but it's a file I guess. This is very confusing for me, and would be excellent if someone could point out what I'm doing wrong. :D


What you're doing wrong is you're not using Ubuntu's package manager. See

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Applications

https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/add-applications/C/index.html

http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/installingsoftware