Installing programs from source can make programs run fast and be more personalized, however it can easy or difficult to get the source to configure and compile.
Standard programs automake, make, and gcc. These are most likely already installed
All the prerequisites the program requires. If you usually use install programs from binaries, (rpm, deb), you will probably have to install devel or src packages. If that doesn't work, you may have to install the prerequisites from source.
Configure the install by changing into the untared directory, and execute ./configure
./configure is the default configuration, most of the time its satisfactory. By executing ./configure --help, it will display all the configuration options. The install directory is set by adding the flag --prefix=/usr or --prefix=/usr/local
Execute make, and this will compile the program
Execute make install to install the program, make sure you are logged in as root, or try sudo make install
Basic
For bzip2 files
tar xvfj *.tar.bz2
./configure
make
make install
For gziped files
tar xvfj *.tar.gz
./configure
make
make install
Debugging Errors[]
There are too many, the best way to solve the problem is to copy the error into google.
Do not use the line Leaving Directory XXXXX
Remove the line number from the error foobar.h:2132 Error: XxxXxxx, often they are not the same from file to file, even when the errors are the same.
Remove common and uncommon prefixes, remove /usr/local/lib/ from /usr/local/lib/libxft.so because on different systems they are in different places