I have successfully compiled SDL 1.2.5 under Debian 3.0 on my Alpha PWS 500au. However, SDL_Init is having some trouble, I keep getting the message: Couldn''t initialize SDL: No available video device X seems to be working well enough...Any idea where the problem lies?

What''s wrong with the libsdl1.2 package that Debian Woody provides?

If you really need 1.2.5 rather than Woody''s 1.2.4, Sid already has a package for SDL 1.2.5. You could probably download the source for the Sid package, and build it for Woody. You may have to slightly modify the debian/controls file, but that is easy (especially if you''ve done if before, so you''ll know what to look for).

Anyway, here are some instructions if you want to do that:

1. apt-get install dpkg-dev fakeroot


2. Download this file (just to keep you from having to mess with sources.list; it''s the results of apt-get source libsdl1.2 in Sid).


3. Extract that archive somewhere and open a terminal in libsdl1.2-1.2.5 directory inside the directory it creates.


4. Type: dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -rfakeroot (this will take a moment, and may tell you to install some -dev packages).


5. If you''re lucky, you won''t have to change anything in the debian/control file to get it to work.


6. Some (unsigned, since we didn''t sign them) .deb files should get spit out in the parent directory; you can install one of these.


7. Doing it this way will keep all the nice Debian packaging and modifications that your hand built SDL wouldn''t have.