27

I am trying to install ioquake on my ubuntu server.

When I try to run it, I get this message:

# ./ioquake3
./ioquake3.x86_64: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I thought I had everything working right, here is where the libSDL is:

# cd /usr/lib64
# /usr/lib64# ls -l
total 2308
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      15 Oct 15 00:25 libSDL-1.1.so.0 -> libSDL-1.2.so.0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      20 Oct 15 00:25 libSDL-1.2.so.0 -> libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.4
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2358903 Jan 19  2012 libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.4

And my path:

# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/lib64

What am I doing wrong?

Improve this question
5
  • 3
    I think that this is a message from libSDL rather than about libSDL. Run strace ./ioquake.x86_64. This will show all system calls (takes way more time to execute). It will show which attempt to open which file will fail.
    – January
    Oct 15, 2012 at 5:02
  • I installed trace. When I run it straight up, I get the help. When I run strace ./ioquake.x86_64 as you suggested I get command not found. I'm getting a headache :(
    – ErocM
    Oct 15, 2012 at 5:15
  • I installed strace*
    – ErocM
    Oct 15, 2012 at 5:20
  • From the OpenArena FAQ, this message appears when libSDL isn't installed, so I don't think it came from it. Not the best idea, but just to be sure, have you tried to rename libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.4 into libSDL-1.2.so.0 ?
    – NorTicUs
    Oct 15, 2012 at 11:12
  • even if the first worked for you: please mark the second (23 upvotes) as answer as it is actually right for 99% of people.
    – tatsu
    May 28, 2017 at 13:00

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
30

This worked for me:

sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian:i386

Improve this answer
6
  • 3
    this is the better answer this should be marked as answer.
    – tatsu
    May 28, 2017 at 12:59
  • 1
    The current chosen answer tells us to apt update and apt reinstall, but you don't need any of that, all you need is to install the i386 architecture of libsdl. This should be the correct answer.
    – Henrique de Sousa
    Aug 13, 2020 at 1:54
  • I needed to install libsdl1.2debian, not libsdl1.2debian:i386, in order to get OpenArena to open in Ubuntu 20.04.
    – kas
    Nov 18, 2020 at 6:12
  • Note that i386 is for 32-bit, so you don't need it for 64-bit machine - meaning you can just do sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian
    – tsveti_iko
    Jan 12, 2021 at 15:07
  • @tsveti_iko well it's been a few years, maybe ioquake needed the 32 bit version even on a 64 bit machine?
    – Joril
    Jan 13, 2021 at 9:34
16

Try the following in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

followed by 

sudo apt-get install --reinstall libsdl1.2debian

Post any error messages you might see

Improve this answer
2

I know this is a year late. But this should fix it:

dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian

The problem is that you are running a program compiled for a 32 bit architecture with 64 bit libraries.

Improve this answer
2
  • 4
    Alternatively sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian:i386
    – Joril
    Jun 5, 2014 at 19:26
  • 1
    @Joril I think your comment should be an answer as itself
    – Alter Lagos
    Jul 18, 2014 at 3:28
2 
sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev
Improve this answer
3
  • 3
    May you include some explanation on what the problem is and how running the above command would solve it?
    – Mostafa Ahangarha
    Mar 22, 2017 at 8:32
  • actually the user applications uses the above library inorder to dump text or images on to the SDL window
    – jagadeesh
    Mar 22, 2017 at 11:07
  • I mean include explanation in the answer. Yet, I think this explanation is not enough.
    – Mostafa Ahangarha
    Mar 22, 2017 at 11:20
0

This question is still relevant to Ubuntu 14.04 for old but still in use programs such as GCCG (Generic Collectible Card Game).

There are two very large answers on the subject:

  1. How to run 32-bit app in Ubuntu 64-bit?
  2. How to install ia32-libs in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr)
Improve this answer
0

No one else's answer solved this for me. This did though:

$ sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian libsdl-image1.2 libsdl-ttf2.0-0 libopenal1 libsndfile1 libncursesw5

Something to do with 64 bit dependencies not being installed due to 32 bit libraries, I'm not sure.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .