Ummm...yeah. On Linux/Unix systems, a sys. admin. generally tells you how to do this or provides a script to set it up...or you're expected to do it on your own. Here's what I've done for years (you'll have to modify it to suit your purposes):
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VERSION=9.1b219
QUARTUS_ROOTDIR=/opt/altera/${VERSION}/quartus
QUARTUS_MWHOME=${QUARTUS_ROOTDIR}/mw
SOPC_KIT_NIOS2=/opt/altera/${VERSION}/nios2eds
SOPC_BUILDER_PATH=${SOPC_KIT_NIOS2}+
PERL5LIB=/bin:${QUARTUS_ROOTDIR}/sopc_builder/bin/perl_lib:${QUARTUS_ROOTDIR}/sopc_builder/bin/europa:${QUARTUS_ROOTDIR}/sopc_builder/bin:
PATH=${SOPC_KIT_NIOS2}/bin:${SOPC_KIT_NIOS2}/bin/nios2-gnutools/H-i686-pc-linux-gnu/bin:${SOPC_KIT_NIOS2}/sdk2/bin:${SOPC_KIT_NIOS2}/bin/fs2/bin:${QUARTUS_ROOTDIR}/bin:${QUARTUS_ROOTDIR}/linux/perl/bin:${QUARTUS_ROOTDIR}/linux/gnu:$QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/sopc_builder/bin:${PATH}
sopc_builder=/opt/altera/${VERSION}/quartus/sopc_builder
export QUARTUS_ROOTDIR SOPC_KIT_NIOS2 SOPC_BUILDER_PATH PERL5LIB PATH sopc_builder
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It's a Bourne/bash compatible environment setup script, so you'll have to be running that sort of shell to use it. Run it by typing ". <script_name>" or "source <script_name>".
Cheers,
- slacker