ntop on Ubuntu: with the error undefined reference to `pcap_parse'

pawelch · 11-04-2010, 11:31 AM

Dear all,

while installing the ntop I am experiencing the following problem:

Code:

/usr/local/lib/libpcap.so: undefined reference to `pcap_parse'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

I am able to compile programs that use pcap without any errors.

Please, give me suggestions from where I should start debugging

bathory · 11-04-2010, 01:21 PM

Hi,

You didn't say what version of ntop you're installing, but I guess you need a more recent version of libpcap.
FYI ntop-4.0.1 works fine here with libpcap-1.1.1.

Regards

pawelch · 11-05-2010, 07:52 AM

newest of both, those are:
ntop-4.0.1
libpcap-1.1.1

I tried to download ntop as a package and with svm:

Code:

svn co https://svn.ntop.org/svn/ntop/trunk/ntop

I have installed the libpcap as well as I have a software that actually works on it ( as I mentioned above) the problem is that the only reasonable solution I have come across on the Internet is that (the guy is saying that he reinstalled Debian eventually):
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/ntop/misc/23774
Apart from that, there is a massive list of unresolved problems of this kind, which has got no solution except "it works fine for me".

Thank for your help.

bathory · 11-05-2010, 07:57 AM

What give the 2 commands bellow:

Code:

ldd /usr/local/bin/ntop |grep pcap
nm /usr/local/lib/libpcap.so|grep pcap_parse

pawelch · 11-05-2010, 08:11 AM

Code:

ldd /usr/local/bin/ntop |grep pcap
ldd: /usr/local/bin/ntop: No such file or directory

and the second one:

Code:

nm /usr/local/lib/libpcap.so|grep pcap_parse
0001ee80 T pcap_parse

maybe I should have added that I had gone through the "./configure"/ "/autogen.sh" part - and ended up with no errors whatsoever, however, while I try to do "make" I get the error from above.

Best!

bathory · 11-05-2010, 09:15 AM

Just downloaded and installed ntop from svn to test if it's a problem of the svn version. Well it also worked without a hitch. Btw you have to run only ./autogen.sh before make, unless you want to tweak things through ./configure.
Anyway I guess that the autogen/configure script picks a wrong pcap library. Maybe an older one that comes with your system. You may uninstall it if that's the case, or you can try the following with ./configure, after running "make distclean":

Code:

LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include ./configure

so it picks libpcap-1.1.1

pawelch · 11-05-2010, 12:16 PM

Hi bathory,
I have done what you suggested:

Code:

LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include ./configure

and got the same error.
so I went on to remove everything from the system that might have had a "libpcap" in the name. I installed libpcap first and got the same error (pcap_parse missing) while compiling the program I mentioned. so at that time I had libpcap installed but compiler (gcc) could not get the pcap_parse thing. I installed lipcap-dev and the error disappeared from compilation - but still exist while I try to do make for ntop.

any other suggestions?

best regards and thank you for your time.

bathory · 11-05-2010, 01:44 PM

I guess you ran "make distclean" before running the configure script again.
Also since you've installed libpcap from source, you don't need any libpcap-dev packages. Everything needed by other programs to compile against libpcap is installed if you compile the library from source.
Besides the supposed undefined symbol (pcap_parse) is well defined according to the nm output.

Other suggestions? Run:

Code:

updatedb
locate libpcap.so
locate pcap.h
ls -l /path/to/any/libpcap.so

If they are not the files installed from sources (re)move them and try to compile ntop again.
You can also add as a first item in /etc/ld.so.conf the path /usr/local/lib (and run ldconfig afterwards).
Also before running ./configure try to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH. For the bash shell, use:

Code:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH