[MPlayer-users] Library detection problems; configure is uninformative

[The Wanderer]

I have libfame installed on my system, along with the development 
headers. ./configure nonetheless reports "Checking for libfame: no (no 
fame dir)". I have located all files associated with libfame on my 
system (aside from the documentation), and made sure they are in the 
library/include paths passed to configure; this makes no difference. 
Checking configure.log is no help, as the only information provided is 
exactly what is present in configure's normal output.

My question is, where does configure look for libfame? The error seems 
to indicate that some separate directory is needed, but no indication is 
given of what it should be called or where it should be located, much 
less what should be in it.


The problem in this instance with configure.log being uninformative 
extends as well to various other features; it isn't uncommon for the 
only thing logged to be whether or not the detection succeeded, with no 
indication of what was checked, which is particularly useful information 
if detection failed.

Another example is with bl; I have blib installed on my system, and have 
in the past compiled mplayer with bl explicitly enabled (since there's 
no autodetect), but it nonetheless fails to function. In this case as 
well, there is no indication of what files are necessary or where they 
should be located; configure.log is of no more help than in the case of 
libfame, though with more excuse in this case as no detection is done at 
configure time.


I would appreciate any assistance with getting either of these things to 
function correctly, and would appreciate it greatly if anything could be 
done about configure's uninformative output in some cases, though I am 
aware that this is the users list and not the development list.

(I'd also appreciate some indication of what to do with respect to the 
crash I mentioned last time I posted - if nothing else, being told "Yes, 
despite the different type of problem bugreports.html still applies 
unchanged." But that's another subject.)

-- 
       The Wanderer

A government exists to serve its citizens, not to control them.