This is killing me. The last three times i've tried to install programs under Slackware, i've run into a wall. I managed to get Gaim installed but i'm having trouble with dependencies.

Could someone please explain how slackware handles libraries and such...?

I mean, I run ./configure and install the requisite libraries, only to have them not detected when i run ./configure again. I run ldconfig. No help. I check /ect/ld.so.config. No leads there. I've heard rumors of being able to specify these in /ect/profile or .bash_profile (which slack doesnt have). How do you go about doing this? Is it the best way? What is the proper syntax?

Help!

You say that you checked /ect/ld.so.config to make sure that your newly install lib is there -- good. But did you run ldconfig afterwards?

Do "man ldconfig" to learn more.

What programs are you trying to install? So far very few programs failed ./configure on my slack 8.1, and even then i would hunt down the needed libraries, install them, run ldconfig, and everything will work.
I heard that if you don't do a full install, many libraries might not get installed, so it's always better to do a full install, then remove un-needed packages.
-NSKL

Yeah, i've run ldconfig before and after.... no help...

I've tried installing Enlightenment , Gnutella , and Eterm... all failed ./configure, asking for libraries that i downloaded and installed.

when i installed Slack 8.0, i tried to install it lean... no gnome or kde... very few programs, and i didnt install the kernel source.... but i did install all the "development tools" and libraries available on the .iso disk.

Ok, first, to clean things up after a ./configure do something like "make distclean". If that doesn't work then just "rm config.cache config.log".
Second, it seems to me that in omitting KDE and Gnome you probably did not install Gtk, which most apps starting with a "g" probably need. I think Gtk is now in the "L" install dir. There may also be additional Gnome libs in the Gnome install dir that are required. Similarly, some apps require qtlib which is in the KDE install dir.
Third, .bash_profile does not exist because you have to make it =-]. Things like "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/some/freaky/path/to/my/lib" and aliases that are specific to an individual user go in there. If you want the proper syntax check out /etc/profile.

You really need to post a specific error message if you want a specific answer.

Eterm, Enlightenment should be installed if you installed the "X" package i beleive. Again, you might want to re-install Slack with full installation option, then remove everything you don't need. This makes things much easier, and you will be able to compile most of the programs from source without problems.
Also, not installing kernel sources is not a smart thing to do on a distro such as slack IMHO.
HTH
-NSKL