I'm attempting to get my hands around installing FreeRadius-1.0.4 on a Debian Linux machine while also trying learn Linux better.  I've been reading through all the various documentation, but had a few general questions that I was hoping someone would be so kind to reply on.

1. All the docs show installation starting with the tar file, but no one really specifies what directory to begin from.  Should I create a new user "raduser" and copy the tar file into /home/raduser or is there somewhere else that is the proper place to begin?

2. After I installed this all (in /home/raduser), is there a quick test to see if the basic functionality works properly?  I read the /doc/performance&testing but reached a problem while going through the process because I couldn't find or run the /user/local/sbin/radiusd  There are zero files in the /user/local/sbin directory.

If it would be helpful for me to post snippets of certain log files, please let me know which ones and what parts and I'll do it.

Thank you!

-Chad