copy the files where TeX would be able to find them and run texhash or mktexlsr. If you want to follow the TeX directory structure read its documentation (texdoc tds). I suggest copying the inconsolata files to TEXMFHOME (kpsewhich –var-value=TEXMFHOME), perhaps ~/texmf. It could look like:

~/texmf$ ls -R
.:
doc  fonts  tex

./doc:
inconsolata

./doc/inconsolata:
fonttable.pdf  inconsolata.pdf	test.pdf

./fonts:
enc  map  otf  sfd  tfm  type1

./fonts/enc:
inconsolata

./fonts/enc/inconsolata:
fi4-ec.enc   fi4-ot1tt.enc  fi4-texnansi.enc
fi4-ei1.enc  fi4-qxtt.enc   fi4-ts1.enc

./fonts/map:
inconsolata

./fonts/map/inconsolata:
fi4.map

./fonts/otf:
inconsolata

./fonts/otf/inconsolata:
Inconsolata.otf

./fonts/sfd:
inconsolata

./fonts/sfd/inconsolata:
Inconsolata.sfd

./fonts/tfm:
inconsolata

./fonts/tfm/inconsolata:
ec-inconsolata.tfm   qx-inconsolata.tfm  texnansi-inconsolata.tfm
ei1-inconsolata.tfm  rm-inconsolata.tfm  ts1-inconsolata.tfm

./fonts/type1:
inconsolata

./fonts/type1/inconsolata:
Inconsolata.pfb

./tex:
latex

./tex/latex:
inconsolata

./tex/latex/inconsolata:
ei1fi4.fd	 inconsolata.tex  ot1fi4.fd  t1fi4.fd  ts1fi4.fd
inconsolata.sty  ly1fi4.fd	  qxfi4.fd   test.tex

Then run texhash or mktexlsr.

Further modify the map files, using updmap or the like. A quick hack could be editing pdftex.map, inserting the lines of fi4.map, for instance

rm-inconsolata Inconsolata "fi4OT1TypewriterEncoding ReEncodeFont" < [fi4-ot1tt.enc
for the OT1 encoding.

Afterwards pdflatex should be able to compile a tex file using inconsolata.

Stefan