Compiler error on Ubuntu Linux with Nvidia Drivers: No rule to make target `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so'

[liangfok]

I did a fresh install of Ubuntu Linux 14.04.4 64-bit desktop. Since my computer has an Nvidia GPU, I installed Nvidia's proprietary Linux drivers (version 361.42). I then followed Drake's Ubuntu Linux installation instructions but ran into the following error while compiling:

make[10]: *** No rule to make target `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so', needed by `lib/libbot2-lcmgl-renderer.so.1'.  Stop.

The problem is /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so points to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so, which points to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1.2.0, which does not exist.

Searching on my computer, I found a /usr/lib/libGL.so.1, which points to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so.1, which points to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so.361.42.

To fix the problem, I updated the symbolic link as follows:

$ sudo rm /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so

With the above fix, I was able to compile Drake. However, I'm not sure if the above fix is correct or the best practice. If it is, we may need to add this procedure to Drake's installation instructions.

[david-german-tri]

Losing libGL.so on Ubuntu seems to be a common phenomenon. Google turns up issue threads similar to this one in a wide variety of open-source projects, with a variety of video drivers. I don't think we can usefully capture any Drake-specific guidance.

[soonho-tri]

FWIW, I had the same issue today. Thanks @liangfok for the solution!

[raj-pandey]

I had the same problem. linker was taking /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so which didn't had the definition for the "_glapi_tls_Dispatch". When I followed @liangfok suggestion and pointed to the correct file, compilation went ahead. Thumbs up for the solution.

[stevenjj]

This worked!
I was facing similar issues with NVIDIA's proprietary driver and your two line command fixed the problem for a catkin build.

As a useful note, I was using the proprietary driver NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-381.09 on Ubuntu 14.04

I had a lot of pre-installed packages and software(srcsim, openpose_ros, cuda, cudann, ros-indigo-desktop (without ros-indigo-octomap), and pcl_ros) and was unsure whether one or more previously installed software caused linking problems.

[Athanaze]

Thanks @liangfok ! This solution worked for me, on Linux Mint.

[rearming]

Thanks a lot!