Installing Python

Local Install

You do not have root access to your machine, or you don't want to pollute /usr, you can install python beneath your $HOME. Paste this into your shell to do it in one step:

cd
wget 'http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.4.2/Python-2.4.2.tar.bz2'
tar jxf Python-2.4.2.tar.bz2
cd Python-2.4.2
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local
make && make install
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/local/bin  #put this in .bashrc or similar
python -v

The last statement above should print something like:

Python 2.4.2

If not, something's wrong :)

Global Install

You shouldn't have trouble with this if you can grok the above.