[dundee] woes from linux [learning curve] mountain

[Digit (SG)]

like the soldiers who write the "just incase letter" to loved ones before
going into battle, i write these whiney noobish questions pleeding for help
like a spastic half breed of a sheep and a turtle, flopping on it's back
pathetically, just before going off to find the answer myself.   i suppose
the letter just lets me find out what it is i'm trying to find out.

this time....


waaaaah,,,   pleep pleep, sob sob.....

i want to install a tiling window manager.

i downloaded pretty much all of them using my dad's xp, n burnt em t disk.

(i really, really want to use a tiling window manager, ... to explore its
curves (lack of), its productivity and workflow enhancing and life enhancing
qualities.   yes, really really want to, oooh, i can taste it so goo~  oh,
er......   *ahem*)

i then copied the lot onto my 133 pentium running desktop light linux, with
a megre 16 mb ram.  a cute little hitachi laptop a friend gave me when my
two boxes broke. a blast from the past, 1996/7ish

first i tried dwm, since it proclaims grandly its lightness and simplicity
(its only 18k, less than 2000 lines of code if i remember correctly who in
the twm & dtwm crowds was claiming what).

i use the guidance of this page :
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/softinstall.html

(yes, i have been using linux for 4 years and have yet to successfully
complete a source install, the most basic, fundamental, and vital of the
transferable* skills. (* not distribution specific)  how lame am i, lol.
how cushy are linux distros these days, lol.)

and i get stuck on when i type precisely "dot slash configure" ( ./configure
)

it says to me:

"bash: ./configure: No such file or directory"

i went back and re-read the readme,
... nothing jumps out as to the solution,

and i'm left with the very strong impression that there's some secret geek
lingo meaning that i'm not yet privy to.

does the "dot slash" ( ./ ) refer to something else needed there?

or have i been putting things in the "wrong" directory?
(makes me wanna try gobo linux with it's unique and inspired restructuing
for the filing system hierarchy structure)

or am i issuing the command when i am in the wrong directory?


no, clearly, i need to get told what's the secret geek lingo i'm not aware
of and thus am not executing the instructions given correctly,


it's moments like this that make me think.... maybe this is the one.   this
is the letter i'll send.   (my drafts folder, littered with ones just like
this, that never made it to an audience.  ... if only i spent more time
learning and resolving and hacking into my machines and less time writing
letters i dont send, then maybe i'd get shit dealt with.  lol.  ) it's bound
to end up being one o the most desperate pleepy incompetent foolish sounding
ones that i send.

so then i tried ion, the one i've been reading up on the most (wmii and dwm
second most), and woe and behold, same same.

bash sez yo bitch wots wit the ./configure mejiggles, there aint no such
file nor even a directory of that name nor nature in existence, innit.
(or however it was the computer puts it)

...so this is the letter i'm going to send isnt it.  :(  oh deary.

but wait, there is hope... perhaps no one will read this one either....   a
website shone a glimmer of light, a ray of hope.....   in my many googles, i
spied....

"Arch *Linux Forums* / Xmonad: A brilliant window
manager<http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=35865>In
many *wm*, it isn't the default behavior, but you can *configure* it.
*...*After
*installing* the packages from *source* it just worked. *...*"


with those last words ringing in my ear, without even opening the tab it had
opened to, without another moments assistance (besides once again pulling up
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/softinstall.html to walk me through it
again), i step over to the laptop......




...
the readme for xmonad throws me in even deeper water (or is it magma?).
whatever it is i dont fully comprehend it.  oh well, my notepad of files i
need to add to my "Digit's WM Collection" folder.  haskell compiler now
joins lua.  oof, it's no small.  i gotta lug that much around in my deli?
it's like lard stodge to my lettuce n grapes.
....





oh well, here is the result:

and i get stuck on when i type precisely "dot slash configure" ( ./configure
)

it says to me:

"bash: ./configure: No such file or directory"



....  yep, that is a cut n paste from the first time around with dwm (n
might as well have been ion-3 too).

... ... .... cuntish.   now i have to send this.   killed in action.

n i know it's gonna make me look foolish for not knowing what's going to be
ridiculously simple to someone else.

*
"bash: ./configure: No such file or directory"*
wot????















.
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