Member Avatar for ethio

Hello,
I'm getting bash:is a directory message every time I want to extract a package. What is this?
The file is in my downloads so I typed:
/home/liveuser/Downloads tar -xfz pckg.tar.bz2
Im running Fedora 15 live CD.
I've also tried su to root, and still the same.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by kazimierz91

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Generated

Quick expert summary and what to try next (for ; builds discussed with input from and )

The configure message means the Autoconf-generated configure script could not determine a canonical build type for your system (it uses config.guess / config.sub to do that). This is a common Autoconf issue: either those helper scripts are missing/outdated in the source tree or they don’t recognize your uname output. The Autoconf manual describes this and recommends replacing the helper scripts or using --build= to tell configure the triplet explicitly. (Autoconf manual)

Practical, low-risk steps (do these in the extracted Wireshark source directory)

  • Inspect config.log first to see the failing test; don’t edit the configure script by pasting random text from /proc.
  • Check whether config.guess and config.sub exist and are executable. If they’re missing or old, replace them with current copies (either from your system Automake installation or from the GNU “config” sources), then re-run configure. A common approach is to copy the config.guess/config.sub that come with automake on your machine. For background and examples see the Autoconf docs and community guidance. (Autoconf manual, community note on replacing config.guess from automake).

Example (illustrative — adapt paths to your system):

# inside the source directory:
ls -l config.guess config.sub    # see if present
# if missing or stale, copy updated files from a system automake directory
cp /usr/share/automake-*/config.guess ./config.guess
cp /usr/share/automake-*/config.sub  ./config.sub
# then re-run configure (see next block for alternatives)

If updating the helper scripts is not possible, give configure the build triplet explicitly. On a 32-bit Fedora system a common canonical name is i686-pc-linux-gnu, so:

./configure --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu

The Autoconf manual documents the --build/--host/--target options; use --build (not --host) to override config.guess without forcing cross-build mode.

Wireshark-specific notes: building Wireshark from source requires development libraries (GLib, libpcap, and tools like Flex/Bison; GUI builds need GTK/Qt dev packages). The Wireshark Developer’s Guide and Q&A list the typical prerequisites and modern build steps; using your distribution’s Wireshark package or a newer upstream release is usually easier than compiling a very old tarball (1.6.2 is end-of-life). See the Wireshark build docs and lifecycle notes for details. (Wireshark Developer’s Guide, Wireshark Q&A on core deps, Wireshark lifecycle info)

If these fixes don’t resolve the error, attach the small excerpt from config.log showing the failing probe and the output of ls -l config.guess config.sub (so the configure test can be diagnosed).

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Member Avatar for JasonHippy

try:

tar -xfz /home/liveuser/Downloads/pckg.tar.bz2

or:

cd /home/liveuser/Downloads
tar -xfz pckg.tar.bz2

EDIT: If I'm not mistaken; because you are trying to extract a .bz2 archive, I think you need to use -xjf rather than -xzf. -xzf is for ., -xjf is for .tar.bz2.

Alternatively, you could just use -xf and leave the tar program to work out the appropriate method of extraction.

Edited by JasonHippy because: n/a
Member Avatar for ethio

Great, thats working now, but I've run into other problems.
After I entered the command ./configure, it returns with "configure:error:cannot guess build type; you must specify one". what does this mean?

Edited by ethio because: n/a
Member Avatar for ethio

After reading something included with the configure error, I tried updating it, copy and pasting it to the configure file from /proc/1830/cwd. Is this right?
Dont know what I'm doing...

Member Avatar for JasonHippy

It sounds like the program you're trying to build can target several different platforms or architectures.
When you are calling './configure', the configuration is failing because it doesn't know which platform you are targetting. So you may need to pass some parameters to the configure command.

Check for any README files or other documentation in the directory containing the source code. Instructions for building the program should be somewhere in the extracted archive. Otherwise check the official website for the project.

Incidentally, you neglected to mention which program you're trying to build.
Can you post the name of the program and a link to where you downloaded the source code? It might help in diagnosing your problem!

Edited by JasonHippy because: n/a
Member Avatar for ethio

Im trying to build wireshark-1.6.2
In case you need my system details..
Its 32bit, 2.6 ghz quad core with 4 gb ram.

Member Avatar for kazimierz91 
tar -xfz /home/liveuser/Downloads/pckg.tar.bz2

This should help.

Best Regards,
Kazimierz

mobile phone: +98 43 382 994

Edited by kazimierz91 because: n/a
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