Tesch David wrote:
> 
>         hola,
>         i am new to linux.  i am running mklinux /red hat 5.0 on an
> 8600/300 (clocks at 366mhz).  after various battles, i finally have the OS
> stabilized and running.  i have downloaded rtcmix, multitrack, and various
> other programs.  i have figured out how to untar and compile these into
> executables, but only the games will execute.  i know this is due to my
> incorrect installation of the required libraries in my $PATH.

The PATH env variable is for locating executables. If you have done a 
"make install", make sure your PATH includes "/usr/local/bin", as this 
is usually the default for additional programs. My path looks like:

$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/local/jdk117_v1a/bin:/home/thudson/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin

Some people like to put "./" in their path to mimic the behavior of
DOS, i.e. look in the current directory for executables. However, this
does open the risk of trojan horses. You can always explicitly specify
the pathname of an executable instead of relying on the PATH:

$ /home/username/some-package-.99.8/exename
or
$ ./exename            # in the current directory

This runs it from its build directory and does not require the "make install."

If you still have trouble, especially complaining about finding libraries,
you need to run "ldconfig" as root. This scans the list of directories specified
in "/etc/ld.so.conf" and registers all the libraries it finds with the loader.
My ld.so.conf looks like:

/usr/i486-linuxaout/lib
/usr/X11R6/lib
/usr/lib
/usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib
/usr/local/lib
/usr/local/netscape/plugins
/home/thudson/.netscape/plugins
/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-linux-gnu/egcs-2.91.58
/usr/local/lib/gtk/themes/engines

This is how Linux finds shared libraries. You can use the "-v" flag on ldconfig
to see what libraries it registers.