Hello,

I'm new to Linux and Slackware (glad to be here), and have a question about installing and configuring files. I'm trying to install a program (gtkpod), which is telling me I'm missing a library (libgpod). I downloaded and configured the library and it looks like it automatically went to my /usr/local/lib directory. So I tried configuring the original program again and it's still telling me it can't find the library. Here's the message I get:

Package libgpod-1.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libgpod-1.0.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable

I'm stumped. Can someone please point me in the right direction?

First up: welcome to linux.
You have chosen Slackware Linux - this is one of the toughest distributions for newcomers to learn, however, all the skills you are learning are generally applicable so, should you stick with it, you will find yourself getting very good indeed.

... you have been using a config script, correct?

Open the script in a text editor, and look for a line that starts: PKG_CONFIG_PATH=
... this is the list of locations that the script looks for the package. You'll probably find that /usr/local/lib isn't on there.

If not, then add it.
If it is, then this suggests that the package did not end up there automatically and you need to go look for it.

Thanks for the Welcome. It's pretty tough sometimes but I'm having a lot of fun. I chose Slackware because I wanted to understand how everything works and learn to do everything manually to get a good feel for it. Slackware seemed to be the way to go.

Yes, and I opened the config.log and didn't see PKG_CONFIG_PATH= but saw this:

ac_cv_path_ac_pt_PKG_CONFIG=/usr/bin/pkg-config and this:
PKG_CONFIG='/usr/bin/pkg-config' and this:
ac_pt_PKG_CONFIG='/usr/bin/pkg-config'

So it looks like it's not looking in the right spot. Is that correct?

Okay, where?

Check this for me:

echo $PKG_CONFIG_PATH

you may also want to try

man pkg-config

jic.

I tried echo $PKG_CONFIG_PATH and nothing happened. But I don't know what that means or what I'm looking for. Am I supposed to be in the gtkpod directory when giving that command?

No. You should have looked in configure script and add these lines here.
Or you just can run this in console/terminal:
$ export $PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib
Now run:
$ echo $PKG_CONFIG_PATH

Now, I think you've got the point.

Hey, that did the trick! Good deal, thanks very much you guys.

Cheers,
fk

I ran into this same problem trying to compile Amarok with ipod support via libgpod. Rather than monkey with redirecting Amarok's configure script via the $PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable, I chose to install libgpod to place it in the proper location for Slackware. Compiling libgpod by starting with will put it under /usr/lib upon make install rather than its default /usr/local/lib. You can then run Amarok's (or gtkpod's) configure script without any further issues, and you'll keep all of your libraries in one place.