installing .tar files

you need to make sure you're in the same place as the file - chances are it's on the desktop, if it's not change to the correct directory.

To get to the desktop in a terminal - cd Desktop

then try again

eihab-desktop - This is the name of your pc and you're home - standard from the install procedure - it is not the desktop which you can see in front of you, that is a folder inside /home called Desktop

Bit confusing the first time round.

Hi forestpixie
Thanks for your response, I did what you said, but when I typed '' ./configure'' I got this error message ;
eihab@eihab-desktop:~$ ./configure
bash: ./configure: No such file or directory
eihab@eihab-desktop:~$

Sorry but am new to Linux?

Hi Eihab,

What exactly are you trying to do with fribidi? I am unfamiliar with the package itself, but I do see it is in the repositories. Perhaps the easier way to do this, is to go System -> Administration -> Synaptic. Search for fribidi there, and install what you need.

If you do have other circumstances where you want this exact version in the tar, it looks like you weren't in the right directory.

By default, firefox would have downloaded the "fribidi-0.10.9.tar.gz" file to your desktop (as forestpixi said). On the command line, you should have done the following:
eihab@eihab-desktop:~$ cd Desktop
eihab@eihab-desktop:~/Desktop$ tar -zxvf fribidi-0.10.9.tar.gz

This will create a directory again (most likely -- depends on the zip file), which you have to change into. Type cd directoryname again, probably the following command:
eihab@eihab-desktop:~/Desktop$ cd fribidi-0.10.9
eihab@eihab-desktop:~/Desktop/fribidi-0.10.9$

Your folder may be named differently, but that is my best guess. You can look at the folders by typing ls (for list).
Now you can proceed with ./configure