Wireshark compile error in RHEL 6.1
 

Fellow Penguin Lovers,

When compiling Wireshark 1.6.0, I get the following error: "configure:19488: error: GTK+ 2.4 or later isn't available, so Wireshark can't be compile." You may be asking why I'm doing this when RPMs are available. Welp, the RPM version of Wireshark flooded by WiFi connection requiring me to disconnect and then reconnect every time I ran Wireshark. No longer, I say!

Important points regarding the error:
1) GTK+ 2.18.9 is installed (gtk2-2.18.9-6.el6.x86_64.rpm)
2) GTK+ 2.18-devel is installed (gtk2-devel-2.18.9-6.el6.x86_64.rpm)
3) The above were downloaded and installed from the RHEL customer portal
4) My brain hurts

Please advise on why I'm getting this error when a newer version of GTK+ is installed and how I can fix it.


Thanks,

Alpo


---
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 64-bit
Intel i7 QuadCore
750GB Hard Drive
6GB SDRAM

It is likely the configure script is looking for the file gtk+-2.0.pc. This should be installed by the gtk2 devel package. You need to make sure your PKG_CONFIG_PATH includes the directory containing gtk+-2.0.pc. There are default paths pkg-config looks in and, typically, gtk+-2.0.pc would be installed in one of those. On the other hand, maybe you don't have pkgconfig installed on your machine.

weibullguy,

Thanks for the reply. Pkgconfig is also installed (pkgconfig-0.23-9.1.el6.x86_64.rpm). I did a search for gtk+-2.0.pc and nothing turned up. Which file contains the PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable, and what is the default path for gtk+-2.0.pc?



Cheers,

Alpo

weibullguy,

I found gtk+-2.0.pc in /usr/lib64/pkgconfig. Where/How do I edit PKG_CONFIG_PATH?

weibullguy,

If I do an "export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/lib64/pkgconfig/" command, is that going to screw up the variable for future use?

The export command is temporary : Works only until you exit the terminal.


( I would use this one :
export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=/usr/lib64/pkgconfig )

..

I wouldn't. This replaces the default search path, PKG_CONFIG_PATH adds additional directories that will be searched before the defaults. Overriding the defaults may fix the current problem, but it may cause others when building wireshark.

Dudes,

I did the export command and the installation was a success. How can I permanently add the /usr/lib64/pkgconfig to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable?

The easiest way is to add it to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile file. Just add exactly what you typed in the CLI to one of those files. No need to be root because you shouldn't be configuring and compiling as root anyway.

weibullguy,

What are the downsides of configuring/compiling as root?

Borking your entire system. That's the downside of doing ANYTHING you don't understand as root. Unless you do a line by line review of the configure script, the Makefile, and the source code to make sure it won't do something nasty, then you really don't understand. The only thing you have to do as root is install system-wide. Of course, you can always install in your $HOME directory and then you don't need to be root even for that.

As long as I'm logged into another account and just using the "su" command, will I be ok?

Sorry, didn't see that you had posted again.

No, you won't be OK "just" using the su command (assuming you are su-ing to the root account).