[Cialug] incomplete installation

[David Courard-Hauri]

So, I'm really sorry to keep asking stupid installation questions. All 
I want my machine to do at this point is compile and run c++ programs, 
so I feel pretty dumb buying SUSE 9.1, but what can you do.

Anyway, I thought that I had things installed because the computer 
could recognize gcc, and so then I went off to do other things for a 
month (I had run out of time to work on this project). Well, now I need 
to do some testing before I send out a paper next week, and it doesn't 
work (oops). So, here is what seems to be the problem.

The computer cannot recognize the g++ command, so I guess I didn't have 
my make flags right. If I try to compile my cpp code, I get the errors:

 > gcc: installation problem, cannot exec 'cc1plus': No such file or 
directory

I looked online, and many people suggested this was just a semantic 
thing that that really I could just do some aliasing, but if I try to 
call my programs main.c and so on, then I get a million errors (I know 
the code compiles fine, though), so I guess that's not it.

I looked at the confsdefs.h file, and it looks like the problem comes 
at the point where it looks for crt1.o, which apparently I don't have. 
This becomes an issue also if I try to compile a very simple c program. 
Although, when I tried to do "hello world" first it told me that 
<stdio.h> couldn't be found, so maybe I managed to screw up the 
libraries as well as everything else.

I have two questions. Answers to either or both would be greatly 
appreciated.

First, is there some obvious thing that I have done wrong? Does it 
sound like something that can be easily fixed?

Second, when I have problems like this, my response after wasting a day 
is to just say "screw it, if I installed clean I wouldn't have these 
problems" and go out and pay $80 for some new distribution. This just 
tends to make my problems worse, but it is a function of my inability 
to really spend as much time as I should understanding what is going 
wrong. I must admit, it is a very tempting solution at this point. So, 
is there an off-the-shelf distribution that I can just go buy, install, 
and then go on my merry way with g++ and emacs both running nicely, so 
that I can shoot this paper off and pad my research CV for when I apply 
for tenure later in the month?

g++ is really all that I want right now in the world. That, and maybe a 
firewall so I don't damage other computers. After that, maybe I'll be 
done with questions, since I don't use this computer for much else 
anymore.

Thanks for your help!

-- Dave

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David Courard-Hauri
Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy
Olin Hall, Drake University
Des Moines, IA 50311

515.271.3812
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