How to tell one package where another package is located?

I am using Texmaker on Linux (gentoo) and am not sure how to use CTAN packages. I downloaded the packages that I think I need as I see errors come up or from the documentation. Then did the following …

$ mkdir ~/docdir
$ cp base.zip ~/docdir
$ cp refman.zip ~/docdir
$ cd ~/docdir
$ unzip base.zip
$ unzip refman.zip

And I end up with a tree as follows:

~/docdir
|- base
|   `- ... files from the base package
`- refman
    `- ... files of the refman package

There is a file in the ~/docdir/refman directory that seems to be what I want called layout_e.tex (I assume e for english). If I load that file in Texmaker, I get a first error like the following.

! LaTeX Error: File `refart.cls' not found.Type X to quit or <RETURN> to proceed,or enter new name. (Default extension: cls)Enter file name:! Emergency stop.<read > usepackage

Apparently refart.cls is from docstrip which looks to be in the base package. The first non-commented lines in layout_e.tex are …

documentclass[twoside,a4paper]{refart}
usepackage{makeidx}
usepackage{ifthen}

My Question is, how to I tell it where to find these packages? I can see that makeidx and ifthen are included in the base package. Yet it’s not seeing them. I’ve downloaded them and expanded them with a single working directory, so … How do I tell this file where these are located?

Also, is layout_e.tex meant to be a working example? Can I copy that file from ~/docdir/refman to ~/docdir/myfile.tex and start working from there? And if so, how do I tell it where all those other files that were unzipped with it are? E.g., pagepc.sty, refman.dtx, refman.ins, refman.upl, etc…

Any help much appreciated.