tar command missing in terminal

[LarryB]

Binary package hint: gnome-terminal

I have been trying to follow the procedure on Ubuntu forums to install the driver for my Lexmark X1180 all-in-one. However, when I start up Terminal the commands listed in the forum do not work. For example "tar" returns the error message:
 Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

I am using version 8.4

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Sep 13 16:28:15 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-terminal
Package: gnome-terminal 2.22.1-0ubuntu2
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-terminal
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-19-generic i686