compilation (in general)

[tetrahymenix]

question to the Linux-gurus out there:

I'm a relative new convert to Linux and run a vanilla mandrake 9.0 setup.
I try to stick as much as possible to rpm's whenever installing new software for two reasons:
1) I'm bone lazy and
2) whenever I do the ./configure, make, make install I am always greeted with screenloads of warnings and the @**!'ers eventually fail to install for reasons that a non-C-coder such as myself cannot comprehend.

Is Mandrake so much different to other distros that souce code cannot compile per se, or is the compiler out of date ?

I could give a few example, but it would be a waste of space since it seems to be a general phenomenon (as in roughly 90%) with this setup.

anyone?

[CP]

What exactly have you been trying to compile? Have you checked dependencies? Sometimes you need to make sure that what the software requires is in the right place, or you need to tell it where it is. Give us a few examples and we'll be able to help you more. You should be able to compile fine on your setup.
CP

MDK 9 is LSB compliant, so any RPM made for an LSB compliant system (fx rh8) should run if I'm correct... but I swear by compiling since I'm a Gentoo user.

You might want to look into "Pengiun Liberation Front" for up to date rpms for MDK.

[Kernel_Killer]

You are probably missing development packages, or kernel-headers.

There are all sorts of things that can cause a tarball not to compile.

What is one error you get, and what app? If the error is coming from glib.so.6 (I think that is the name), you might need to install the NVidia drivers off the NVidia site regardless if you have a NVidia card or not. Most RPM's that claim to have it are just too much of a pain, or re-made by people not knowing what they are doing.

[gorn]

definately check to see that you have the development packages installed using whatever mandrakes setup tool is.

also post some of the errors here so we can help more. to copy paste select the text the middle click to paste. if you have a 2 button mouse both at once is a middle click.