Please help a linux newbie

[trmiv]

OK, I just installed Mandrake 8.1, and I'm already stuck. I am trying to unzip a file (.zip extension) by just clicking on it, but when I do, archiver opens up, but then displays an error message that says "Sorry, the utility zip is not in your PATH. Please install it or contact your system administrator." Its got to be installed, because archiver will open, it just won't unzip anything. I tried it under root and got the same thing. How can I add it to my path? Also, what is the command line way to unzip a file? All this file is is a large image I want to use as a wallpaper.

 

[AtomClock]

At the bash prompt (that means in a shell window) type

unzip filename


that's it

 

[trmiv]

Hey thanks, that was simple enough. Now does anyone know about this path thing?

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

temporary solution:

"find / -name zip -print"

and look for where zip is located

and then:

"export | grep PATH"

that gets me:


<< declare -x PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games" >>


yours might differ slightly.

now, just type

"export PATH="whatever/was/here/before:/usr/bin:/bin:/you/get/the/point:/path/to/zip"

and for a permanant solution, you gotta edit ~/.bash_profile

put in a line

export PATH="what/you/want:/to/be/your/path"

i know theres an easier way to do the first one, i'm sure you can use export to append to a variable, but i dont know how. (im just a n00b )

those SHOULD work, unless i'm dumb, which is often the case.

 

[neuralfx]

do a 'locate unzip' (or find, or whereis .. i jus prefer locate) note the path to it, then edit ur profile it should be '/etc/profile' , find the PATH$ statements, and add the new path in there, notice how they are seperated, once you see it it will be easy, then save it, and you should be good to go .. good luck and enjoy linux ..
-neural

 

[NorthenLove]

-nt-

 

[trmiv]

OK, I know I'm sounding pretty stupid here, but how the hell do I save that profile file after I edit it? I've tried every text editor in Linux and they all tell me that they can't save the file.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

you are editing /home/<user>/.bash_profile and it wont let you save it?

if so, your permissions on it are funky

again, temporary solution:

su to root and save it as root

permanant solution:

fix the permissions on it, but i'm not that good with chmod.

chmod 777 filename gives full access to everyone but i'm not sure you would want to do that, i dont really know.

 

[trmiv]

OK, I figured out how to edit my path and save it, but I'm not sure what to add. When I did "locate unzip' in the console I got a few different things:

/usr/bin/bunzip2
/usr/bin/gunzip
/usr/bin/bonobo-moniker-gunzip
/usr/bin/funzip
/usr/bin/unzip
/usr/bin/unzipsfx
/bin/gunzip

What exactly do I need to add to my path? Are any of those the KDE archiver? Sorry for such stupid questions, but I am new at this whole Linux thing

I can easily unzip stuff from the command line, but I would at least like to get .zip files associated withsomething that will allow me just to click on them and see the contents without unzipping, like I do with Winzip. It looks like Archiver will let me do that, but I still can't get it to work.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

well it said it needs unzip in the path so out of those that you listed what you would want to add to your path is /usr/bin. (you just give it the directory not the file)

thats not already in your path?

 

[trmiv]

The only thing already in my path was $HOME/bin. I just added /usr/bin, but that didn't do anything. I'm confused.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

hmmm...if you added /usr/bin, it should have made the program stop whining about unzip not being in your path....

 

[lorenzo]

You can type the entire path in your command string. ie, if you are trying to use unzip, and it's located in /usr/bin, you can type /usr/bin/unzip <filename>.

One more thing, can you type "echo $PATH" and post the resulting string? I find it strange that you dont already have access to /usr/bin in the first place.

 

[pedrog]

A few quick things that may be related...

When you login your path is set based on two files. Everybody get's basic settings from

/etc/profile

and their are local modifications in $HOME/.profile

My /etc/profile file looks somethng like this... (debian)


PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games"
export PATH

It is pretty standard to have /usr/bin in the search path (PATH).

It would be helpful to see what the current value of your PATH variable is (before any changes). Open a term (some folks call it a shell). Type this...

echo $PATH

If /usr/bin is in that list. Then make sure that zip/unzip are really in your /usr/bin directory.

ls /usr/bin/*zip

If they are there they will show up. (Sometimes the 'locate' database is a bit old - this is just to double check).

Can we see your PATH and the results of the list command (ls)?

 

[trmiv]

when I type echo $PATH, this is displayed:
/usr//bin:/bin:/usr/bin::/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin/usr/games:/home/ted/bin

I really want to figure this path thing out. I am trying to get VNC to work too, but when I try to run vncserver it says Xvnc is not in my path.

 

[lorenzo]

rereading the posts...

You can unzip files from the command line, you just cant get the KDE archive application to work? I think we were all going off in the wrong direction then...

 

[trmiv]

<< rereading the posts...

You can unzip files from the command line, you just cant get the KDE archive application to work? I think we were all going off in the wrong direction then... >>



Yea, that's the case. The weird thing is, I just found out KDE Archiver works fine with .tgz files, but refuses to work correctly with zip files, even though it is associated with it. The program pops up, but then I get that message that I said in my first post and it won't unzip

 

[lorenzo]

well, if your first post's error message is word for word. You are having problems because zip, not unzip, isnt in your path.

All you need to do is install it. I found a copy of zip-2.3-8.i386.rpm at rpmfind.net. Try installing that and then running the app again.

http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=zip&submit=Search+...