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Install software

Plop Linux does not have a package management like RPM or DEB. In the most cases you have to compile the software by yourself. It's also possible to use precompiled software like Firefox, Opera, Blender, LibreOffice and so on.

How to compile software

Mostly, programs have a configure script to make the compile and install process very easy. You just have to extract the downloaded software archive, run the configure script, use make && make install to build and install the program. Usually you find install instructions in the archive.

Plop Linux comes with the 2 scripts myconfigure and myxconfigure. Those scripts are starting the configure script and the build/install process. They accept additional parameters and pass them to the configure script. Example: myconfigure --enable-shared

myconfigure installs programs to /usr (configs to /etc). Use it for console programs.

myxconfigure installs programs to /opt. Use it for graphical and X related programs.

You find many examples to install software in the Build Tools - Sources and Compile Scripts section. There are build scripts for every software that comes with Plop Linux.

Precompiled software

You have to extract the software archive and copy to /usr, /opt or a custom directory. See the build scripts for Firefox and Blender in the Build Tools - Sources and Compile Scripts section.

The archive can be compressed in many formats like tar.gz, tar.bz, tar.xz, zip and so on. Its'a also possible to extract rpm and deb packages.

RPM: To extract a rpm package use rpm2targz. This converts the rpm to a standard tar.gz file.
Example: rpm2targz file.rpm or rpm2targz *.rpm

DEB: To extract a deb package use dpkg. This extracts the deb file to a directory.
Example: dpkg -x file.deb destination_directory

© 2024 by Elmar Hanlhofer