Rather that tell me what I an doing wrong (apart from attempting this) can someone point me to where I can find out what I need to know.
 
Scenario:
Debian sarge installed (no probs or errors) on i386 machine.
Attempting to install freeradius-1.0.4.tar.gz
 
will not ./configure without errors.  As I don't know what I am ment to be looking for, I can't find what I am doing wrong.
 
Trying to be smart, I went to the debian site and downloaded freeradius_1.0.4-2_i386.deb from http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/freeradius
I can't find documentation for this, so don't know what to do with it now I have it.
 
Given I am NOT familiar with linux at all, and have ventured into this reluctently, can someone point me to some really bullet proof documentation that doesn't assume people already have an extensive knowledge of linux before they start.
 
I have been working on this for 3 weeks now, searched gallaxies far away for info, god is now refusing to take my calls, and my wife has threatened to lock me in my room so she doesn't have to put up with me. I have also learned some very colorful words.
 
Someone please save me.
 
Fred