I am trying to install (by compile) the latest version of GnuCash (1.8.2)
I am running Slack 9.0rc1 (updated by using swaret).

I have made sure to install all of the packages that it has needed.
Here is what happens:
./configure --enable-static --with-libguppi-prefix=/usr/share/guppi --enable-gui --with-gnome=/opt/gnome --with-gnome-lib=/usr/lib
(I have done this without the --with-gnome-lib as well)

This works.

make

Everything compiles, linking is a problem. I get errors like:
grep: /usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.la: No such file or directory
sed: can't read /usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.la: No such file or directory
libtool: link: `/usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.la' is not a valid libtool archive
make[4]: *** [libgncmod-gnome-utils.la] Error 1

Now I know that I have the library libfreetype.la on my systems. To try and fix the problem, I have tried a symbolic link from the know location to where it want the file. As soon as I fix this one another library comes up. How do you tell libtool where the libraries are?

I have search for this error on the net, I find the question, but no answer to it.

Thanks for you help.

Well,

there's a few possibilities ...

Did you check whether
produces readable output?

Also, are you aware of the fact that
Freetype and Freetype2 use the same
names for their files? Maybe you are
facing a version conflict (even though
that doesn't sound too likely looking at
the errors you quote).

Cheers,
Tink

I am posting the answer I figured out so others might have less pain.

First, the error:
grep: /usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.la: No such file or directory
sed: can't read /usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.la: No such file or directory
libtool: link: `/usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.la' is not a valid libtool archive
make[4]: *** [libgncmod-gnome-utils.la] Error 1

What this really means is that libtool is looking for a library that is directly needed by the source or a library that is indirectly needed.

Soooo, the previous post let me know that the *.la file are text files explaining things about the library. One piece of information in this file is which libraries are needed by THIS (the library file you are looing at) library.

So libtools knew were to find my base libraries, but when it checked to see if I had everything it went through the *.la files.

Soooooo, you have a couple of choices. 1) Edit the la files to point the dependencies to the correct library. I did this with some of the files using KFileReplace. 2) Create a symbolic link to where libtool expects to find the file. For example ln -s /usr/lib/libfreetype.la /usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.la . I did this for a few files that it would have been a real pain to change. 3) Make sure you have the most recent packages or installs of the libraries you need. Be aware that if you use a package install and then do a compile install of the same library you can actually cause this problem.

My problem came from moving to Slack 9.0rc while GnuCash looked for older libraries from Slack 8.1.

I hope this helps someone.