You will need get and install both the GUI and the core. This section will tell you how to get and install the GUI. The next section will tell you how to get and install the core.
The GUI is only a Graphical User Interface (read: windows and buttons) for the eDonkey2000 command line client. The eDonkey2000 command line client is not open-source, but proprietary software which you have to obtain separately. Without the command line client (='core'), the GUI does not make much sense. Get a core from here: http://ed2k-gtk-gui.sourceforge.net/core.shtml.
You can get the latest GUI from http://ed2k-gtk-gui.sourceforge.net. If you are lucky, you will find a ready-made .rpm or .deb package for your distribution, otherwise you will need to download the source code tarball and compile the GUI yourself.
If you're living on the edge, you can also get the latest GUI source code from CVS. CVS stands for Concurrent Versioning System and is a client-server system which is used by developers to keep track of changes made to the source code over time. The ed2k-gtk-gui has its own CVS server on sourceforge, and developers will regularly upload ('commit') the latest changes (bugfixes, new features) to the CVS 'repository'. Bugs are always fixed in CVS first, so if you do not want to wait for the next release, you can access the CVS and download the very latest version of the source code even before a proper release is made. Instructions on how to do this can be found on the GUI download page.
In order to run a pre-compiled binary you will need the gtk+-2.x libraries on your system. Just run
'locate libgtk2 | grep ".so"'
In order to compile the GUI yourself you will not only need the gnet-2.0.x library and the gtk+2.x toolkit libraries, but also the respective development packages (header files etc.) of those libraries. Just run
'pkg-config --libs gnet-2.0'
'pkg-config --libs gtk+-2.0'
Download the package of your choice and use your distribution's package manager to install it. Please refer to your distribution's documentation for instructions on how to do this.
If your distribution is using RPM packages, you usually use the command
# rpm -i ed2k-gtk-gui-0.6.0-2.i386.rpm
as root to install the GUI on your system (exact filename might differ).
If you are using a debian system, install the GUI with
# dpkg -i ed2k-gtk-gui-0.6.0-1_i386.deb
as root (exact filename might differ).
Download the source tarball (.tar.gz) and unpack it with
% tar xzf ed2k-gtk-gui_BLA.tar.gz
or download it from the CVS repository (see above), and change into the source directory with
% cd ed2k_gui/
In order to compile and install ed2k_gui on your system, type the following in the base directory of the ed2k_gui distribution (ie. the directory where the AUTHORS file is):
% ./configure
% make
% make install
Since Ed2k_gui uses autoconf/automake you should have no trouble compiling it. If you are on the bleeding edge and got your source code via CVS (see homepage), then you will need to run the ./autogen script to produce the ./configure file.
You will probably need to become root in order to install the GUI on your system. This is how you do it:
% su
Password: (type in the root password here)
# make install
(loads of screen output follows)
# exit
Now you should be able to run the GUI simply by typing 'ed2k_gui' into a command line window (konsole or xterm or whatever), or by pressing ALT-F2 in Gnome/KDE and typing 'ed2k_gui' there. However, you still need to install the core before you can actually use the GUI. Please proceed to the next section for instructions on how to install the core.
Should you run into problems please report them to the the author: Tim-Philipp Müller, or report them in the ed2k-gtk-gui forum.