Ubuntu 9.10 - Missing Separator Problem when Compiling
 

I'm new to Ubuntu and Linux and have limited programming experience. I'm attempting to install device drivers for a SmardCard reader (SCMCCID driver). I'm supposed to first install the pcsc daemon (pcsc-lite-1.5.5) and the libusb library.

I successfully downloaded pcsc-lite-1.5.5 and libusb tar files to my 'Downloads' directory (separate sub-folders). I need to compile each package, so on each I successfully ran './configure'. Now I need to 'make' the packages. In the terminal window I type 'make -f Makefile.in' and I get the following response:

Makefile.in:15 *** missing separator. Stop.

Line 15 in Makefile.in is '@SET_MAKE@'. Other posts have stated that the missing separator error is usually because the leading whitespace is not a tab, but I don't have any leading whitespace.

This error occurs on both the pcsc and the libusb compliations, so I'm convinced I'm doing something wrong. Any suggestions? Thanks.

A few things.

Firstly, don't download and compile these, just install the packages from the Ubuntu repository.

You should already have libusb, but you could install that much in the same manner.

Now that that is solved, let's pretend you did want to build that software. Running ./configure will generate a Makefile (sic) using automake. So, you want to just run the make command, without -f Makefile.in, which is not meant to be invoked directly. Makefile.in and Makefile.am are used by automake to create an actual Makefile (sic). The phrase @SET_MAKE@, for example, is not something that will be comprehensible in the make syntax.

Thanks! That solved the problem!