Topic: bootable thumb drive ubuntu... how to install bitcoin client (Read 2087 times)

Oh, sorry, I thought you were a little more familiar with Linux.  My mistake.  

What I wrote above is a series of commands that you put into a terminal window.  To open one, hit the start button, type 'terminal', then click the terminal app.  You should get a text window.  This is similar to a cmd window on MS Windows.

Then you can start typing the commands above.  Here's what they do:

Download the file:

Now it's in your home directory.  A .tar.gz is like a zip file.  To extract it we use the tar program:

Now your home directory has the tar file plus the bitcoin directory.  To see everything there, type 'ls', which is like 'dir' in a cmd window.

Next you go into the directory where the program is.  'cd' means change directory.  The program is three levels in, so:

Above I just shortcutted you in like this:

Either way works.  Then you have to run the program.  Unlike windows, the current directory isn't in the PATH on Linux, so if you want to run a program you have to prepend './' .  Thus:

And the program should start.


If you prefer to work with the GUI, you can do it that way too.  First use Firefox to download the .tar.gz .  It will save it to your Downloads folder.  To get there, click the file folder icon on the left.  Click the bookmark for Downloads.  You'll see the .tar.gz.  You can drag it to your desktop if you'd like.  Right click and choose "Extract here".  You'll see the new folder appear.  Double click it, then 'bin', '32', 'bitcoin-qt'.

thanks but there are no instructions above just a url and some computer language that i dont understand. I have opened terminal but have no clue what to do with it. I tried copy and pasting the text from above into terminal but no success

You did not follow the instructions as you would not see that if you had done what was suggested in the terminal program so on the left side of your screen go to the Applications and type in the Search box terminal double click on the icon for it to open Terminal then follow the instructions above, you may want to alter the very last one ./bitcoin-qt to ./bitcoin-qt & then it will back round the program allowing you to close the Terminal window without quitting the bitcoin-qt client.

thanks but it just says "no application available to open bitcoinqt"

wget http://softlayer.dl.sourceforge.net/project/bitcoin/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.6.2/bitcoin-0.6.2-linux.tar.gz
tar -xf bitcoin-0.6.2-linux.tar.gz
cd bitcoin-0.6.2-linux/bin/32
./bitcoin-qt

Please forgive me I'm a noob,

I can boot my pc from a ubuntu thumb drive I made last year but i cannot remember how to install the bitcoin client that i downloaded from bitcoin.org. do I need to install an installer or file extractor before I can install the client???

This problem is distressing me greatly and i have turned to the bottle to dull my anxiety, so if anyone can offer assistance to this drunken self loathing bitcoin noob I would be very appreciative.

thanks