Installing Software from .tar.gz? Autorun?

[TreeHugger]

What is the proper way to install software that comes as a tarball? I downloaded this program: https://github.com/maoserr/redshiftgui/downloads; And, I extracted it, but had no clue where the files should be properly extracted to. It didn't have a readme. I just extracted to my download folder. The program runs, but it seems strange just having it in a random place.

Also, how can I get a program to be automatically started when I log in? I want redshift and this GUI extension to run whenever I log in so I do not have to remember to start it myself. I think if the GUI version is started it automatically loads gtk-redshift.

[muep]

There is no single universal way to install software from a tarballs, which are just collections of files. Some software requires you to compile them somehow, while others can just be extracted to some place of your choice and run from there. Thus mature software usually comes with instructions on how it is compiled (if necessary) and run.

If the software does not ship the necessary instructions, you often need to have some familiarity with the tools used in making the program.

[goodfella]

The application untars into a 'bin' & 'share' directory.

The default location for applications of this sort is /usr/local.
You will see that /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/share exist.
Make sure /usr/local/bin is in your PATH variable.

You can download the executable like you did or you can download the
source and configure it to install in /usr/local. The source is at:

https://github.com/maoserr/redshiftgui/downloads
click on the "Download as tar.gz" at the top of the page.

maoserr-redshiftgui-fd7c641.tar.gz

[Fenrin]

sometimes it's necessary to compile such packages (then you need necessery tools like gcc, make, automake, gcc-c, binutils, glibc etc.). If this is the case you can probably find a helpful README or INSTALL file.

Or otherwise (like it is here) you can look if there is any executable binary file. It's below RedshiftGUI*/bin. If it's not executable, you can make it executable. Either via your file browser or via:

chmod u+x ./redshiftgui

from the path where it.

I tried to execute it from terminal:

$ ./redshiftgui
bash: ./redshiftgui: /lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2: bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory

it seems to me that this program isn't very friendly on a 64 bit Fedora linux system.

you could proceed with:

yum whatprovides */lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2

But it will not show any packages under Fedora. Fedora has it's 64 bit packages ussually in the lib64 folder. Sometimes it helps to make a symbolic link like this:

ln -s /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 /lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2

On a 32 bit Fedora it is probably a bit easier to get it working. It could be that you will have to install a dozen other packages after installing this and that... Perhaps not worth the effort.

[TreeHugger]

This is my first foray into the Linux world so I really appreciate the detailed responses. It is funny that the same reason I became interested in Linux is the same reason I am having trouble: the user has more choice. I have gotten very accustomed to simply clicking an executable and installing to default directories. I just found out that the same program I used on Windows now has a Linux version:

http://stereopsis.com/flux/linux.html

It seems it has to be installed by source code also. I haven't installed anything from source before, but I might give it a try. It seems like the best option when there isn't a package available. I really like redshift, but operating it from the command line wasn't working well. The GUI version works well, though it doesn't seem like it is updated any more, though neither is f.lux.

[Fenrin]

it seems to me like fluxgui doesn't work under F17. I downloaded and installed this python program like that:

git clone https://github.com/Kilian/f.lux-indicator-applet
python setup.py build
su
python setup.py install

fluxgui started from terminal:

$ fluxgui
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fluxgui/fluxgui.py", line 2, in <module>
import appindicator
ImportError: No module named appindicator