[fpc-pascal]Linux - Graph unit?

[Marco van de Voort]

> I downloaded the rpm and typed:
> 
> #rpm -i svgalib-1.4.1-2.src.rpm
> 
> I don't think this is how this type of RPM gets installed.... it's a 
> "source" RPM I take it?

No. source rpm usually have srpm as extension.
 
> It didn't give any errors but didn't fix my compile problem, either.

Then it only installed the lib, but didn't do some postconfiguration step.

Try finding the lib(s)vga.so.x.y library, and create a symlink to it called
libvga.so

> Sorry for asking a Linux question.... but is there a right way to get 
> the graphics library installed?

It is very distribution (and package) dependant.

However, the bottom line is 

1) that if FPC says: "can't find -lxxx" then you are missing a libxxx.so file.
	Usually that means you have to install the corresponding package
2) A corresponding package sometimes doesn't install libxxx.so, for various
	reasons (see below), you can correct this by creating a symlink with
	ln -s libthenamethatwasinthepackage.so.123.5235  libnameitshouldbe.so


The reason for (2) is because 

- you might want to install multiple versions of this package, and if all
would call the main lib "libxxx.so" this would cause conflicts. This is 
	solved by appending the .x.y.z versioning to the libxxx.so file
- Some libraries have multiple names. e.g. a lot distributions/OSes call
  "libsvga" libvga, and some call "ncurses" curses, all for historical 
   reasons.