Bootstrap C Linux compiler problems.

I'm trying to install the k3baudiomonkey plugin for the k3b burner so I can burn audio CDs, right? So as root, I go into the untarred folder and run the config script, and I get this:
root@box:/home/stu/k3bmonkeyaudioplugin# ./configure
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for -p flag to install... yes
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cl... no
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log' for more details.

No C compiler found, simple enough, I thought. Just get GCC on this bad boy. So I download a GCC compiler, run the config, and get this:
root@box:/home/stu/gcc-3.4.1# ./configure
loading cache ./config.cache
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
./configure: line 2332: cc: command not found
*** The command 'cc -o conftest -g conftest.c' failed.
*** You must set the environment variable CC to a working compiler

Alright. Strange logic. A C compiler requiring a C compiler to build. After some extensive Googling, I found a forum for a distro called...Blarg, I think, with someone with the same problem (Sorry, can't find a link to the thread), and someone recommended getting a redhat package or something, where they referred to it as requiring a bootstrap compiler.

More googling and no results at all, for linux bootstrap c compiler, bootstrap c compiler, debian c bootstrap, etc. etc. I'm running an HD install of a Knoppix distro, which if I remember is based off Debian, yes? So any help would be much appreciated. I have the feeling I would have some problems installing anything without a C compiler for the build.

What distro are you in? You need to get a binary version of GCC rather than a source version. RPMs are usually binaries, but not all distros support installing apps from RPMs. Gentoo is almost all source, but it also has binary packages. etc. etc. The solution to this is going to be very largely distro-specific. (A binary package is one that has been pre-compiled on someone else's system.)

Note also that it says that there's no compiler found in your $PATH. Did you do a locate gcc? You might already have GCC somewhere not on your $PATH. If you do, then you can easily add it to your path; if you use bash (and almost certainly you do) it would be done thusly:

export PATH=$PATH:/wherever/gcc/is

(K3B is a great program by the way. But mkisofs and cdrecord are just as good. :) )

A more important question, which is also distro-specific, is why are you trying to install a program by hand like that? Almost all distros have package management systems which are designed so that you never, ever, ever have to ./configure && make && make install any longer. It would be wise to use the package management system whenever possible. (That is assuming you're using a distro that has a package management system; not all do.)

I'm running Knoppix, which I'm pretty sure is derivant of Debian. I tried the Debian packages, but it didn't have any package management. It recognized it as a Debian package, but it asked me what program to use when I opened it, and no package manager was found.

I did try locate gcc already, and it returned some things, though typing gcc -v or anything with gcc yielded an error message saying it wasn't a recognized command.

For the k3b plugins, there aren't any binaries available, at least not on the k3b download section (some googling could find them, I'm sure, I just hadn't tried it since no C compiler was found)

EDIT: Played around with apt-get. I think I have it figured out.

It'd be easier if you used a real distro that was meant to be installed. :)