How do I install a .so file? - newbie

Question

I downloaded freeverb.tar.gz which contains a plugin library (freeverb.so) for Audacity.

I extracted the .tar.gz file to my downloads folder but I don't know what to do next. There is no Readme file or any other info contained in the .tar.gz file, just freeverb.so

Can you advise me how to get the freeverb.so installed into the correct folder for Audacity to pick it up?

Solution

According to ubuntu manual:

ldconfig creates, updates, and removes the necessary links and cache (for use by the run-time linker, ld.so) to the most recent shared libraries found in the directories specified on the command line, in the file /etc/ld.so.conf, and in the trusted directories (/usr/lib and /lib).

So, assuming that freeverb.so is located in /home/yourUser/Download directory (folder), create folder in your home:

mkdir /home/yourUser/myLibrary

and copy freeVerb.so library:

cp /home/yourUser/Download/freeverb.so /home/yourUser/myLibrary

create a simple file freeverb.conf like this:

echo "/home/yourUser/myLibrary" > freeverb.conf

Add you configuration file freeverb.conf in /etc/ld.so.conf.d directory (in this directory you can find files as example)

sudo cp freeverb.conf /etc/ld.so.conf.d

Run ldconfig in order to configure dynamic linker run-time bindings.

sudo ldconfig

If /etc/ld.so.conf.d doesn't exists, you can add your path at the end of /etc/ld.so.conf file.

At the end, if all went well, you can remove unnecessary file:

rm freeverb.conf
rm /home/yourUser/Download/freeverb.so

Comments

[DaveyT]

Hi Letizia thank you for answering my question. This is how far I have got - I created freeverb.conf file in text editor containing the path to my freeverb.so file but when I try to save it to /etc/ld.so.conf.d directory I get error message 'Do not have permission to save to /etc/ld.so.conf.d directory' when I use UI. Could you tell me please what is the sudo command I need to use in the command line to add this file? I know this is basic but I have only come over from Windows and this is all new to me, many thanks, Dave

[Lety]

I updated the answer

[DaveyT]

Hi Letizia,dt@laptop:~$ sudo cp freeverb.conf /etc/ld.so.conf.d [sudo] password for dt: cp: cannot stat `freeverb.conf': No such file or directory

[Lety]

I updated the answer

[DaveyT]

Hi Letizia, removed unnecessary freeverb.so file, I now somehow have a locked freeverb.so directory within my Home directory, I tried to remove it with -r /home/user/freeverb.so but I get error message '-r : command not found I also tried -R and --r

[Lety]

Pay attention with rm command, try ls -l /home/user/freeverb.so in order to verify file permission and if file exists. If it belongs to your user, it could be read-only (-r--r--r--), in this case use rm -f /home/user/freeverb.so. I think you forgot Download folder in path, isn't it?

[DaveyT]

Hi, Letizia, ls -l /home/user/freeverb.so command returned total 0. I checked freeverb.so directory's permissions via GUI and they are root ownership . I no longer have freeverb.so file in Downloads, only freeverb.so directory in /home/user/

[Lety]

I'm a little bit confused. Did you follow the step I described in the answer? If you did, and the only step you missed is the last "remove unnecessary file", then you should have freeverb.so in /home/yourUser/myLibrary. In this case you can remove it with: sudo rm /home/user/freeverb.so

[DaveyT]

Hi Letizia, you are correct, I missed an important step, now rectified, and resolved, Thank you