remus - the method that i use to compile all of my programs is as follows.
i will download the file into a tmp directory in my home.
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seb@shadowfax seb% cd /home/seb/tmp
seb@shadowfax tmp% tar -zxvf kopete-0.7.4.tar.gz
seb@shadowfax tmp% cd kopete-0.7.4
seb@shadowfax kopete-0.7.4% ./configure --prefix=/usr
seb@shadowfax kopete-0.7.4% make
seb@shadowfax kopete-0.7.4% su -c "make install"
Password:
seb@shadowfax kopete-0.7.4%
[/code:1]
as a general rule, it is advisable that you are logged in as a super-user for minimum time only. This is a security reason.
The command,
su -c "make install"
will prompt you for the su password and will then run the command in the quotes. It will then automatically log out from root access.
If you *are* doing all of this under your home directory etc, set the permissions. To do this, the easiest way is to open up konqueror, or a file manager and right click on your folder, and select properties.
In the permissions make sure you have checked the boxes which say "View, Write and Execute" for your user.