Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to help a newbie through some installation processes, and to help me learn a little about what is going on throughout the steps.

I am currently migrating from Win98 to RedHat Linux 9.

I recently downloaded Xine & GXine so that I can watch videos. Xine installed OK, I think, so on to GXine. I learn that I need to also download GTK+2.6 and GLib2.6. So I downloaded glib-2.8.0.tar.bz2 and gtk+-2.8.0.tar.bz2. GLib 2.8.0 seems to install fine.

But when I go to install GTK+ I get the problem:

# ./configure
[...snip...]
checking for BASE_DEPENDENCIES_LIBS...
Package glib-2.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `glib-2.0.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'glib-2.0' found
configure: error: Package requirements (glib-2.0 >= 2.7.1 atk >= 1.0.1 pango >= 1.9.0 cairo >= 0.9.2) were not met.
Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
installed software in a non-standard prefix.

Alternatively you may set the BASE_DEPENDENCIES_CFLAGS and BASE_DEPENDENCIES_LIBS environment variables
to avoid the need to call pkg-config. See the pkg-config man page for
more details.

Hmm, I thought I just installed Glib-2.8.0, what gives?

I am running on the following assumptions:
1. I used a gnome terminal window, then ran 'su'
2. I had downloaded the packages to /home/mcolm/packages, then installed the respective packages from /home/mcolm/packages/[insert-package-name-here]
3. If I type "./configure", then "make", then "make install" and don't see anything screwy, then that package installed correctly.
4. I have never knowingly specifically told any software to install itself in a non-standard location

So my questions are:
1. Why doesn't the GTK+ configure script detect that glib 2.8.0 was recently installed?
2. When I installed glib 2.8.0, where did it go, and/or what files should have been modified?

I could probably find a Xine frontend that is easier to install than GXine, but I'm interested in making this a learning experience. Thank you in advance for any help!

Because you installed it in /usr/local and didn't add /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig to your PKG_CONFIG_PATHTo learn more about the package you're installing run configure with the help switchMost packages install in /usr/local by default. To install gtk+-2.8 you'll also need to install atk, cairo and pango. Read http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2...-building.html

Pango will also need you to install the development libraries for xorg or XFree86 which you will have to install from an rpm. You can install XFree86 from source but...let's not go there

Andrew,
Thanks for the reply. After trying what you said:
I get the following after running ATk's configure:

checking for GLIB - version >= 2.5.7...
*** 'pkg-config --modversion glib-2.0' returned 2.8.0, but GLIB (2.2.1)
*** was found! If pkg-config was correct, then it is best
*** to remove the old version of GLib. You may also be able to fix the error
*** by modifying your LD_LIBRARY_PATH enviroment variable, or by editing
*** /etc/ld.so.conf. Make sure you have run ldconfig if that is
*** required on your system.
*** If pkg-config was wrong, set the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH
*** to point to the correct configuration files
no
configure: error:
*** GLIB 2.5.7 or better is required. The latest version of
*** GLIB is always available from ftp://ftp.gtk.org/. If GLIB is installed
*** but not in the same location as pkg-config add the location of the file
*** glib-2.0.pc to the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH.

So, I took a shot in the dark and tried:

Running /sbin/ldconfig -v indicated to me that /etc/ld.so.cache now recognized the 2.8.0 library as the valid target.

The result was, that Atk compiled and installed without errors. However I ran into a pretty nasty side effect. Specifically, Gnome stopped letting me run new things.. such as, I couldn't open new terminals or new windows of Firefox. When I rebooted, Gnome refused to even start. So I had to change to a text terminal, and undo the above cp command, and re-run ldconfig to undo the damage I apparently did. I re-did and un-did all of the above several times to confirm that indeed my above commands were causing this problem. Are the contents of /usr/lib actually dynamically linked libraries, so to speak?

Anyway, I undid the cp/ldconfig business and went ahead and re-tried to install Atk, since I'm assuming it wouldn't exactly be installed properly any more. Sure enough, configure yielded the same message as at the top.

Pango, strangely, "configure"ed ok, but elicited compiler errors after running "make" in regards to ftglue.c. More on that later, this post is crowded enough as it is.

so, new questions for my newbie education:
1. Can someone confirm to me what was happening?
2. The first, original, above message indicates that ldconfig still points /etc/ld.so.cache to the glib 2.2.1 library, in /usr/lib, even though the PKG_CONFIG_PATH can force pkgconfig to recognize that 2.8.0 is present in /usr/local/lib. How do I properly uninstall 2.2.1, and get ldconfig to find 2.8.0 without manually cp'ing it to /usr/lib (or is that necessary anyway)?
3. Assuming I do uninstall 2.2.1 and get 2.8.0 running, will Gnome take to it? After all, when I tried my above bastardized approach, Gnome seemed to have problems.
4. As a workaround: If I do a bastardized copy of the 2.8.0 library into /usr/lib and run ldconfig, then compile & install atk, then remove the 2.8.0 library from /usr/lib, will atk or other dependent software work in the future?


Thanks again for the help!

Don't uninstall gtk-2.2.1, Gnome won't like it. To force the configure scripts to find the stuff you've installed in /usr/local/lib first you will need to set more than PKG_CONFIG_PATH. Read http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2...-building.html , set these variables

Thanks once again for your helpful advice. I did what you tried, and additionally found that I had to set the LD_CONFIG_PATH variable as well. Then, everything went smoothly.

While trying to search through post archives, I noticed numerous other newbies have run into problems specifically relating to updating Glib and the subsequent attempts to install the new software that requires it. Most of these requests for help went un-helped, and the help that does get offered is mostly incomplete. I am certainly not criticizing anyone for helping but this seems to be a particular weak-spot for newbies in general.

For other reasons, I have discontinued the GXine part of my 'quest', but the 'learning something too' part has been very successful i think. Partly, I learned that to install GXine, or Totem, or most other nice front-ends, i'd have to update SO MANY libraries that it's gonna be a lot easier to just get an up-to-date distribution than frustrate myself with my old redhat 9.0 distro.

I started to realize that to install the new pango, i needed the new freetype, which needed a new such and such, etc etc, and the gargantuan list of dependencies I'd have to address imploded in my head until i decided upon a more, uh, fundamental approach.

one of these days I'll be free of MS Windows. But sadly, until I can reliably use linux to watch my internet porn, microsoft has me by the proverbial balls