How do I install a makefile?

[jerm wuruhi]

I'm a complete beginner to Fedora - I have moved from Mint, which I only used for about a month. Makefiles confused the hell out of me there too.

I have a .tar.gz file that I would like to install on my computer. It contains a makefile and 2 folders (lib,src), I have spent about 2 hours on google trying to figure it out. No matter what I do in the terminal nothing seems to work. I know I can't be doing this right, so be kind to me if I'm making some hillarious newbie mistake!

This command got me somewhere "tar xfvz hybrid-portsrc_x86_64-v5_100_82_112.tar.gz"

It came up with a whole lot of info starting with "Makefile"

The website I was on then instructed me to type "./configure"
All I got was "bash: ./configure: No such file or directory"

I thought I'd try the next step in the tutorial "make"
The response is "KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1 make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build M=`pwd`
make: *** /lib/modules/3.3.4-5.fc17.x86_64/build: No such file or directory. Stop.
make: *** [all] Error 2"

The next step "make install"
"install -D -m 755 wl.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/wl.ko
install: cannot stat `wl.ko': No such file or directory
make: *** [install] Error 1"

I have tried other what other websites have reccomended but have had no luck. One prompted me to open the file from the terminal like "cd /var/tmp/hybrid-portsrc_x86_64-v5_100_82_112.tar.gz" but it says no such directory.

I have no idea and am annoyed that something so simple needs to be so complicated and hard to find online. I'm trying to break free from Windows and learn something new, but my patience is running thin. I can understand the complexity if I was doing something intense, but I'm not.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm inching towards retreating back to windows (I don't really want to give up, but my headache is getting more and more painful!!)

[sonoran]

The 'configure/make/make install' routine is straightforward once you've done it a few times,
although at any stage you can be presented with errors.

First, check to see if the software is in the Fedora or rpmfusion repositories. If it is then install
with yum or yumex unless you have a compelling reason to compile the source code yourself.

Second, use google or a site like rpmfind to see if someone has already made an rpm of the
program. If it is reasonably recent you might be able to install it using rpm (see man rpm).

If you must compile the source yourself, follow these steps:

1) unpack the tarball in a directory your user has read/write access to (like a 'build' dir in your /home).

2) cd to the directory where the 'configure' script is located and as your normal
user run './configure'. This checks the resources the software requires against what
is on your system and reports an error if you don't have the necessary libraries already installed.

If you get errors here you can try installing necessary libraries, preferably from the Fedora repos,
and then run configure again. Repeat until you get no errors.

3) the configure script will create a makefile which will be read when you run 'make' as your normal user.
If the compiler finds no errors in the source code, then

4) become root with sudo or 'su -' and enter 'make install'. Note that 'su -' might cd to root's
home directory, in which case you need to cd back to your /home/user/build or wherever that
makefile is located, then run 'make install'.

Some useful links:
http://www.scottro.net/qnd/qnd-tarball.html
http://www.scottro.net/qnd/index-cc.html
http://home.roadrunner.com/~computertaijutsu/
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz

[marriedto51]

After a quick web search, it looks like you are trying to install a Broadcom Linux STA driver. (From http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php?)

If so, you might well be able to get it from the rpmfusion repository, and avoid any configure/make/install procedure. As well as being a bit easier, this makes for straightforward updates.

First, make sure you have configured the rpmfusion repo: there are straightfoward instructions at http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration. (This is useful for access to all sorts of software and drivers that are not part of the official Fedora repositories for various reasons.)

Then in a terminal type:

su -c 'yum install broadcom-wl'

enter your root password and wait...

You might well need a reboot to make sure the driver is accessible.

[secipolla]

Originally Posted by sonoran

4) become root with sudo or 'su -' and enter 'make install'. Note that 'su -' might cd to root's
home directory, in which case you need to cd back to your /home/user/build or wherever that
makefile is located, then run 'make install'.

I think the dash after su isn't needed here, right? And just su will stay in the same directory.

[jpollard]

It depends on what you are doing.

su (without the -) doesn't set all the security configurations that some things require (this is because it uses the users previous environment).

Linux, like UNIX, has two UIDs for each process. One is the "real UID" obtained by login or su - (WITH the "-"). The other is the "effective UID", used for file access checks (what gets set via su without the "-".

[jerm wuruhi]

Hey guys, just wanted to say a big thanks for replying - I'm currently on someone elses computer as I've just moved house and haven't got the internet on yet :-/ so won't be able to implement your solutions until my internet is connected, but I just wanted to say thanks for your effort - Having supportive people available means alot to me ae

[stoat]

Originally Posted by jerm wuruhi

...so won't be able to implement your solutions until my internet is connected...

It's still possible to install the RPM Fusion binary version of the driver while in an offline situation. You identify the three rpms needed by your kernel, download them on another system or computer, somehow transfer them to the Fedora filesystem, and manually install them.

P.S.: I trust you to have made sure that the driver supports your wireless device. Not all Broadcom chipsets can use it. Anyway, it happens all the time.