Manual software installation

Hi everyone,

As you probably have guessed from the title, I am totally new to the Linux world.

I am trying to get a program called Quantum to run. From what I could gather while reading on-line, programs in Linux usually come in packages.

It this case however, I only have the archive with an already installed program - basically just the folders and files. It's doesn't seem to work in this condition and there are no read-me or setup documents.

I wonder if there is a way to get it to work ?

I am using Debian 8 through VirtualBox.
Here is the software, in case someone wants to take a closer look. TinyUpload.com - best file hosting solution, with no limits, totaly free
After successful install, one should be able to run this command from the sub-folder /qttest/:

quantum run1 data

This is some installation guide I came across: www.wenku.baidu.com/view/b8e2e4bef121dd36a32d82c2

Looks like it's only for when you have the package installation. But maybe it can be useful somehow - it says they recommend to put everything in /usr/ directory.

Moderator comments were removed during original forum migration.

Hi folks,
I realize that I may not have given enough information to get any help with this.

The program I am trying to start is called Quantum and is used in market research. The last version is from 2000 year or so - it is no longer supported.
I have seen it run under Ubuntu. I think the fact that I am using Debian should not be an issue?

I tried this commands in the /bin folder of the program:

chmod u+x quantum
chmod u+x *.*

Now I am getting this error

[ UNIX QUANTUM - Version 5.7 (1252) ]
./quantum: line 166: /bin/quantall: no such file or directory

I checked and file quantall exists in the same directory.

I found two hidden files, that I think are somehow connected to being able to run the program. I am pasting the contents:

# if running bash
if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then
    # include .bashrc if it exists
    if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then
	. "$HOME/.bashrc"
    fi
fi

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi
# .bash_profile

# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
	. ~/.bashrc
fi

# User specific environment and startup programs

QTHOME=/usr/qtime/qt/v5.7
QVHOME=/usr/qtime/qt/v5.7
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:$QTHOME/bin

export QTHOME PATH

"no such file or directory" can sometimes mean "can't find a library I need".

Try ldd /bin/quantall to see what kind of executable it is, whether your system supports it, and whether it can find all the libraries it needs.

It's probably missing a few, and may need a special kernel module loaded to run it at all (if your system is 64-bit).

You might be able to coax it into working by copying over the libraries it needs, too. I suggest copying them into /opt/quantum and just symbolically linking them into /lib or /lib32 or what your system has. Easier to keep track.

P.S. "*.*" is a DOS-ism. On UNIX, * is sufficient.

I get this message back:

not a dynamic executable

Yes, my system is 64 bit. Don't know if this helps to narrow anything down, but I heard Quantum was used as far back as mainframe machines and they even kept some of the compatibility with those up until last version.

I realize that I am coming to this thread very late and you already have excellent experts helping you so I'll just make this one post here.

You say that you downloaded an 'archive', a commonly used Unix term meaning a compressed set of files and this usually means not just one single file involved. I clicked on the link you posted and it offers to download 'qtime.rar' which implies it needs to be unpacked using WinRAR or equivalent. Did you unpack this archive successfully? If so, please post of the list of files therein.

When I tried to download the file on a Windows 7 system my anti-virus went nuts telling me that there's something I should be careful of.

Try file /bin/quantall

I am not sure why the antivirus is acting up - I did not download this from somewhere, I made the archive myself.

@Corona688

I copied the files from /qt/v5.7/bin and from /qt/v5.7/lib into the general /lib/ directory of the OS and into the /opt/ directory as well - it still won't run. I am not sure if that is what you meant me to try though?

[ UNIX QUANTUM - Version 5.7 (1252) ]
./quantum: line 13: qlocale: command not found

[ UNIX QUANTUM - Version 5.7 (1252) ]
./quantum: line 166: /bin/quantall: no such file or directory

With this:

file /bin/quantall

I get messeage

quantall: ASCII text

You last post#8 seems to indicate that /bin/quantall is an ASCII file.

So that raises the question as to how you copied the files onto the system? Removable media? FTP? Did you do a binary transfer?

In what form were the file(s) when you first got hold of them?

They were zipped in archive from another computer (running Windows) and after that I downloaded the .zip as attached file from e-mail in the virtual machine.

.zip is a terrible format to transfer a UNIX application in. You lost all your permissions bits, most vitally, the executable ones. You need to get a tarball or something.