-1

I have worked on Linux for a year. One thing bothers me is that I am not familar with the process of installing new software with source code(I can't install them from netword due to environment limitations).

I was often blocked with different kinds of error, for example:

------------------------
libtool: install: error: relink `Magick++/lib/libMagick++.la' with the above command before installing it
------------------------

or

------------------------
magick/.libs/libMagickCore.so: undefined reference to `gzseek64'
magick/.libs/libMagickCore.so: undefined reference to `gztell64'
------------------------

Though I finally found solution with google, I don't know exactly why it works.

Can anyone helps me with this situation or give me some advice on how to improve myself on such kind of things?

I am lack of the knowledage of "configure","make","difference of 64bit","shared lib"; Could anyone point me in the right direction and give me some helpful books or articles?

Thanks in advance!

bluesea007
  • 43
  • 1
  • 4
  • Are you installing magick++? I needed to install magick++ for MediaWiki and I ran into those issues. I can't exactly remember what errors I got but it was relating to some missing libraries.http://www.imagemagick.org/Magick++/Install.html – Nikolas Sakic Jun 20 '10 at 06:44
  • Yes, I met those errors while installing imagemagick; I finally made it work, however I don't know why that works:) – bluesea007 Jun 20 '10 at 07:59

2 Answers2

1

I suggest you take the specific issues to the respective authors/communities of the software packages you are dealing with, try to resolve them there, and learn from those experiences.

While there is various literature around to learn about "Linux", issues like in your examples are quite specific and can't really be learned a priori.

Peter Eisentraut
  • 3,575
  • 1
  • 23
  • 21
  • Thanks a lot for your advice:) I should learn more about "Linux":) – bluesea007 Jun 20 '10 at 08:00
  • If you're interested in learning more about linux, then you could check out the StackExchange network's linux site: http://unix.stackexchange.com/ – Kevin M Nov 20 '10 at 20:18
1

Learn through experience - you haven't been doing this for too long yet. Just keep trying like you have been, you'll get better with experience.

Knowing how to program helps... Learning how the build tools work helps. Knowing lots of general things about Linux helps.

Ask for help if you really get stuck - stackexchange is great for fast responses. I've been doing this for close to 20 years and still get stuck on failed builds sometimes and need help. Sometimes code will never build unless it's actually modified because it's incompatible with something on your OS - not your fault.

Google (or others) can answer so many of your questions. Nice it's possible now right? I remember when search engines really weren't so helpful at all because there was very little to the web to search for.

Linux has documentation like man pages and distribution/tool specific stuff all over the place (e.g. man make or cd /usr/share/doc/make are pretty standard) or on the web.

My personal suggestion that might work (take it or leave it) - unnecessarily download lots of software packaged as source and build it and make it work... once you've done it enough times, you'll have more knowledge/experience/confidence.

Ryan Babchishin
  • 6,160
  • 2
  • 16
  • 36