I'm a beginner at Ubuntu and other Linux distributions as well, Here's my problem: 1. SDL was not default installed, so I had to install it in order to build SDL apps. When I install it, I can build the sample app, but not run it without "Unable to init SDL: No available video device". The package I downloaded was called "SDL-1.2.13.tar.gz", and I installed it with the following commands in the terminal: > ./configure > make > sudo make install 2. however, then I tried to run: > sudo make uninstall And after that I can run the built program, and everything works! But then, I can't build programs with SDL anymore since SDL was uninstalled... What I would like to do is install SDL correctly so that I can both build and run SDL apps without having to install and uninstall all the time. I googled this for 10 hours but didn't find any solution, however some place hinted that there was something wrong with how I installed SDL, and that I needed to somehow specify that SDL "should build with X support" and that this wasn't specified by default. As far as I know, X has something to do with the GUI or video drivers but as I said I'm a beginner at Ubuntu so I'm not sure what all this means. How can I get SDL properly installed? Thanks!

1) System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager
2) Search (Search: libsdl, Look in: Name)
3) Mark libsdl1.2debian nad libsdl1.2-dev for installation
4) Apply

Although Compiling from source should work too.

[Edited by - Kambiz on June 17, 2008 4:08:21 AM]

Thanks, the package manager worked!

In still wonder why my previous method didn't work, but maybe it was because other packages were missing because when I checked the SDL dev package it automatically said I needed some 10 other packages, which probably weren't resolved when I tried it manually. Or?

./configure will check whether all required packages are installed or not but if will not automatically download and install them. For popular libraries use the package manager, its much simpler. If you are going to compile from source read the readme and install documents and make sure configure was successful before running make.