I'm currently trying to get aircrack on my laptop, which says it needs openssl. I've gotten the package and after configuring openssl then making the files I try to test the program, which ends up with

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lssl
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [link_app.] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/terrence/aircrack-ng-1.0-rc2/openssl-0.9.8j/test'
make[1]: *** [bntest] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/terrence/aircrack-ng-1.0-rc2/openssl-0.9.8j/test'
make: *** [tests] Error 2


From what I'm understanding -lssl is part of openssl, but how can I be missing it if the install program I just ran was supposed to have put it on. if it helps I'm running debian 8.04.

what is debian 8.04? Do you mean ubuntu 8.04?

No you're not.

You're running Ubuntu 8.04.

The simple solution would be to upgrade to Intrepid (8.10). This can be done automatically without reinstalling by going into synaptic preferences and changing upgrades from LTS to Normal Releases. Intrepid has a binary of the program you're looking for in the repositories, so the following command will install it without compiling from source:
Or you could just check the little box next to in in Synaptic if that floats your boat.

try install install openssl with apt-get.

if you already have done that then it looks like it may have installed a newer version.

" lssl " means '/usr/lib/libssl.so' and this file is found
only in package 'libssl-dev'

But better install what you need, with Synaptic,

as recommended, or 'sudo apt-get install aircrack-ng'
....