How to download/install a program

Searching these Discussions is a good place to start. You can read the User Manual for your computer and Guide for OS X that should have come with the computer. Use the Help menu of the Finder and any application to find online assistance. Take advantage of the Mac 101 Tutorials. And Google.

You can purchase good books on OS X, Unix, etc. at Amazon.com. There are easy ones and those that go into depth. Maybe start with Mac OS X for Dummies and The Macintosh Bible.

aus_andy wrote:
G'day All,

Now Im still getting used to this crazy new operating system for my new MacBook.

Now when I download a program I understand it goes into the download folder. How do I then install it? I double clicked on the downloaded program but it just 'unarchives' and put another file

in my download folder?! Can anyone help!? Im trying to download a program from iskysoft.com

That's usually correct. The first file is a container. When you unzip it you get the actual install image or app. Most likely the new file is a .dmg. You double click that and follow the instructions.

Downloads may come in many different formats, but the most common are disc images (.dmg) and archives such as .zip archives. In the case of the latter you must de-archive the file. You can double-click on it to do that. The result may be the actual program or a folder containing the program or even a disc image file. If it's the program then simply put it in your Applications folder (if it's an application.) If it's a folder then put the folder in the Applications folder (if it's an application.) If it's a disc image then double-click on the disc image file (.dmg) which in turn will "mount" the image as a disc icon on your Desktop. Double-click on that icon to open a window in which the application or an installer will reside. If it's an application drag it o the Applications folder. If it's an installer double-click on the installer to install the program.

If you download a file that cannot be opened by OS X (not a .dmg file) then it may be a different type of archive (.sit or .bin, for example.) In this case you will need a program to de-archive these files. You can download a freeware program called The Unarchiver to use - VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

i'm having the same problem with .bz2 files downloaded... by default they get converted to ".cpgz"... if i just "delete .bz2" to leave .dmg, i get disk mounting error, "not recognized"... didn't expect that to work...

i tried current version of stuffit - 13.02, which appears to expand it and leave a .dmg file about 3x in size. this gives the same error message... i tried "the unarchiver", with identical results as stuffit...

i checked versiontracker.com for ".bz2" files and only found 2 old programs seemingly to create ".bz2" files... wikipedia says this file format has been around since about 2000... i've tried this on several computers, 10.4.11 and 10.5.3 and 10.5.5 with no success yet...

is there a shell command for decompressing this?

i see there's a: http://www.bzip.org... might poke around there in my copious spare time...

i'd appreciate any suggestions...

thanks-

.bz2 is another compression file type (like a .zip file). It's pretty common to see something like *filename.tar.bz2 or *.tar.gz. Sometimes, it seems like Stuffit Expander does a strange job with .bz2.

If you want to get bzip2 installed on your Mac so you can properly open this package, then go to bzip.org/downloads.html and get the "source tarball" (tarball is a term for a kind of file that is vastly popular with open source programs, used to keep many different files all stuck together as one (not like spyware, no worries); additionally, this "tarball" is compressed by gzip or bzip2, which gives it a final type of .tar.gz or .tar.bz2). This Stuffit Expander should have no trouble opening. Whenever it decompresses this *.tar.gz, it will give you a folder called bzip2-1.0.5 in your Downloads folder.

Now, open Terminal and type (hitting enter after each line)
cd ~/Downloads/bzip2-1.0.5
make


...at this point, it will either have produced many errors and complained about lack of a compiler or of gcc, or it will not have (if it does produce errors, dont' worry, you haven't hurt anything. It just doesn't have a program that it needs, and it's easy enough to get the programs it may be lacking to do this). If it didn't, type

sudo make install

and enter your password when prompted. This is just so that it can install the actual program in protected areas of your hard drive where it keeps system files.

And now, you should be able to go (if you're still in the ~/Downloads/bzip2-1.0.5)

cd ~/Downloads to get back to your download files.

Now, back to that file of yours. You can remove the .bz2 extension by just typing, at the Terminal,

bunzip2 ***filename**.bz2

and it'll unpack everything very nicely and wont give you a strange extra extension. The file WILL get bigger however. This is just because you are decompressing it.

good set of instructions... but no luck...

after installing bzip and decompressing the bzip file, the .dmg file still won't mount with the same error message...

comparing the "uncompressed" versions of the .bz2 file from stuffit, unstuffer, untar (which states it supports bzip2), and the bunzip2 files, they are all identical in size... diff on the files shows no differences...

i may look around on mozilla to see if there are any reports of this problem with their file...

thanks for the suggestion...

at least i have bzip2 installed now even if the file won't decode... (-;

jn-

A common problem. Delete the .bz2 extension so you only have a file with the .dmg extension. Double-click on it to mount it. All should be fine.

I took a look at the skysoft software... There are free alternatives. Read up on Mactheripper and handbrake...