I tried to install a .tar.gz file. When I do tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz it works fine. But once I CD to the directory and type make and try that it gives me this error :checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no checking for style of include used by make... GNU checking for gcc... no checking for cc... no checking for cc... no checking for cl... no configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH See `config.log' for more details. after a whole lot of other text. (that looks like the error thouhgh.) if you have any ideas or know what to do please help. Thanks in advance.

Do you have gcc-devel installed? When you get errors like these (complaining something is not installed, when you think it is) it is usually 1 of 2 things... either the development package is not there or else it is installed someplace that is not in your Path. I would start by checking if you have gcc-devel. If you do, find out where it is. Then type # echo $PATH to find out if your path is pointing to that location. BTW... I stopped using Red Hat because of too many such problems... incomplete or missing libraries... especially if you are trying to install any KDE programs. the libraries are pretty much crippled... but that's a Qt thing, not gcc. (me rambling here... sorry)

yeah, I don't think that I have that. I think I am going to have to switch to debian sometime, the thing is that I am kind of afraid to. But where do I get it anyhow? thanks for the help.

Do a complete installation of Redhat 9 (install everything), and you shouldn't have this problem. Just as mandika says, you are likely missing at least one vital development package. Another possible solution is to find an equivalent RPM instead of that tar.gz file. This would contain precompiled binaries rather than the uncompiled code, and therefore you wouldn't need the development packages. Although, with the RPM, you may need additional libraries, but you'll find that out when you upgrade or install the RPM: rpm -i package.rpm Good luck.