Using "auto-apt" with compiles.

On my fresh debian installs I'll use auto-apt to help build up all the
missing packages. It makes compiling much easier. auto-apt shouldn't be
run all the time, but for first time programs and compiles, it can be a
life saver.

I haven't been on redhat/fedorka systems in awhile, but they may also
have an rpm based auto-apt that might work. YMMV.

There are many ways to do the same thing, but here are some generic
steps to start with:

#make sure your system is up to date:
apt-get update ; apt-get upgrade

#install auto-apt:
apt-get install auto-apt
apt-get clean

#set up auto-apt to run (this is SLOW):
auto-apt update
auto-apt updatedb
auto-apt update-local

#go into X11 if you haven't already:
startx

#run your program:
auto-apt run some_program_here

When auto-apt finds a missing package, it will pop up a window stating
so. It will also ask if you want to install it automatically. I've had
problems with this and generally open a new shell window and install it
manually. From there you can hit "cancel" in the pop up window and the
program will keep happily running.

Not all packages accessed by the program that auto-apt catches are
really needed to run (like the FORTRAN ones). These can be ignored. If
you are new to all this, install them anyways to just make auto-apt
happy and it easier for the others to troubleshoot.

To use auto-apt with a debian source file:
auto-apt run dpkg --build ....

To use auto-apt with a generic source tar file:
tar zxvf myprogram-source.tar.gz
cd myprogram-source
auto-apt run ./configure --options_go_here
auto-apt run make
auto-apt run make install

What I use for a generic/vanilla kernel recompile:
tar jxvf linux*.tar.bz2
cd linux-* #the extracted directory
auto-apt run make mrproper
auto-apt run make menuconfig
auto-apt run make all
auto-apt run make modules_install

As it should be rather obvious by now, "auto-apt run" is the prefix to
anything and everything that might be missing a package.