Before you build Ethereal

Before you build Ethereal from sources, or install a binary package, you must ensure that you have the following other packages installed:

Depending on your system, you may be able to install these from binaries, eg RPMs, or you may need to obtain them in source code form and build them.

If you have downloaded the source for GTK+, the instructions shown in Example 1 may provide some help in building it:

Example 1. Building GTK+ from source

gzip -dc gtk+-1.2.8.tar.gz | tar xvf -
<much output removed>
cd gtk+-1.2.8
./configure
<much output removed>
make
<much output removed>
make install
<much output removed>

NoteNote!
 

You may need to change the version number of gtk+ in Example 1 to match the version of GTK+ you have downloaded. The directory you change to will change if the version of GTK+ changes, and in all cases, tar xvf - will show you the name of the directory you should change to.

NoteNote!
 

If you use Linux, or have GNU tar installed, you can use tar zxvf gtk+-1.2.8.tar.gz. It is also possible to use gunzip -c or gzcat rather than gzip -dc on many UNIX systems.

NoteNote!
 

If you downloaded gtk+ or any other tar file using Windows, you may find your file called gtk+-1_2_8_tar.gz.

You should consult the GTK+ web site if any errors occur in carrying out the instructions in Example 1.

If you have downloaded the source to libpcap, the general instructions shown in Example 2 will assist in building it. Also, if your operating system does not support tcpdump, you might also want to download it from the tcpdump web site and install it.

Example 2. Building and installing libpcap


gzip -dc libpcap-0.5.tar.Z | tar xvf -
<much output removed>
cd libpcap_0_5rel2
./configure
<much output removed>
make
<much output removed>
make install
<much output removed>
make install-incl
<much output removed>

NoteNote!
 

The directory you should change to will depend on the version of libpcap you have downloaded. In all cases, tar xvf - will show you the name of the directory that has been unpacked.

When installing the include files, you might get the error shown in Example 3 when you submit the command make install-incl.

Example 3. Errors while installing the libpcap include files


    /usr/local/include/pcap.h
/usr/bin/install -c -m 444 -o bin -g bin ./pcap-namedb.h \
    /usr/local/include/pcap-namedb.h
/usr/bin/install -c -m 444 -o bin -g bin ./net/bpf.h \
    /usr/local/include/net/bpf.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file \
`/usr/local/include/net/bpf.h': No such file or directory
make: *** [install-incl] Error 1

If you do, simply create the missing directory with the following command:

mkdir /usr/local/include/net
and rerun the command make install-incl.

Under RedHat 6.x and beyond (and distributions based on it, like Mandrake) you can simply install each of the packages you need from RPMs. Most Linux systems will install GTK+ and Glib in anycase, however, you will probably need to install the devel versions of each of these packages. The commands shown in Example 4 will install all the needed RPMs if they are not already installed.

Example 4. Installing required RPMs under RedHat Linux 6.2 and beyond


cd /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS
rpm -ivh glib-1.2.6-3.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh glib-devel-1.2.6-3.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh gtk+-1.2.6-7.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh gtk+-devel-1.2.6-7.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh libpcap-0.4-19.i386.rpm

Note

If you are using a version of RedHat later than 6.2, the required RPMs have most likely changed. Simply use the correct RPMs from your distribution.

Under Debian you can install ethereal using apt-get. apt-get will handle any dependency issues for you. Example 5 shows how to do this.

Example 5. Installing debs under Debian


apt-get install ethereal