[Solved] Apps compiled from source never work and a security question

Question

Gentlemen,
I'm a Linux noob but in spite of that I managed to install Archlinux thanks to a fine How To Wiki.
1. I have a question regarding compiling from source in Arch - does it differ from other linuxdistros?
With other distros I normally install in /usr/local and that has worked flawless.
Take Pacman for instance: although I can see there is this Opera app available in the repo (via arch's home page -> search package), the 'pacman -S opera' tells me the app doesn't exist.
I've tried to download and install it from source following Opera's own 'how to' but the app fails to start, after a successful installation.
Same goes with other apps such as f-prot antivirus.
Did I miss something important here?
2. I installed Arch over FTP. How safe is it, considering I'm not behind a router and the iptables/firestarter was only installed after xfce4 was installed. What about open ports and such? I know there aren't many services enabled/listening but I noticed couple of daemons such as portmap being active during the installation process.
Thanks
Last edited by new2arch (2008-02-25 16:12:31)

Answer 1

kumico wrote:
you can add /usr/local to the path in /etc/profile to make it global or in your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile to make it available to your user session.
a pkgbuild is pretty simple once you get used to it,
you may be put off by packaging standards, you can ignore them, they are only for people intending to share
with other via the AUR for example.
you can copy one of the existign ones, either the prototypes or jsut anyone from the aur,
then change stuff you fidn necessary, like pkgname, pkgver, etc.
and add the same build commands you'd use otherwise to the build()
and usualy for a make install, just add DESTDIR=$startdir/pkg etc.,... just practice you'll get the hang of it very quickly
Hi Kumico, thanks for the tip.
Or I could try using Arch's default paths as long as the applications don't mind. But it's nice to have an alternative solution should any trouble arise.
Regarding pkgbuild, I'll probably start to use it when I feel more comfy with the Arch environment itself.
Using the terminal to perform...well, just about everything, rather than having a nice gui isn't actually bad, but there sure is a transition for a newbie to adapt to.