Check if nasm is installed

If the output is nasm: no input file specified nasm is in place and there is no reason to do anything.

If the output is bash: nasm: command not found you have to install nasm.

Install nasm

If you download from here you will get files that follow the old MSDOS name convention. As a newcomer to Linux you will probably download these files on another computer under Microsoft Windows. This is perfectly OK. Just save the file on a floppy disc.

To read the floppy from Linux you first have to mount it. To do that you must specify the directory under which you will find the contents of the floppy after it is mounted. First make sure you have a suitable directory.
Type:ls /mnt
This is the same command as dir under MSDOS. You will see a list of the files present in the directory /mnt. If you se one named floppy, everything is fine.
If not, you have to create. Type:mkdir /mnt/floppy

Insert the floppy with nasm.tgz on it in the Linux machine and mount the floppy to the file system.
Type:mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

You may place nasm wherever you like. If you want to place it under /usr, first go there.
Type:cd /usr

Copy nasm.tgz to /usr
Type: cp /mnt/floppy/nasm.tgz ./

Now you should unmount the floppy so you will be able to mount another floppy later on.
Type:umount /mnt/floppy

Unpack the file
Type:gunzip nasm.tgz
This command produces the nasm.tar file (Tape archive, an old standard to combine many small files into a single file)

Then, to get the nasm source directory with all the source files in it
Type:tar xvf nasm.tar

Descend into the nasm source directory
Type:cd nasm-0.98

Run the configure script that prepares for compilation on your system.
Type:./configure

Compile and link nasm.
Type:make

Now the executable file nasm is present under the directory where you made the compilation. Move it to /usr/bin
Type:mv nasm /usr/bin

The installation is complete.!!!

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