This is my first openldap install. I am installing by compiling from source on a debian box logged in as myself in my home directory. Berkeley DB is not installed systemwide. LDAP libraries are installed systemwide, but I want to install the whole openldap tarball in my home directory and use that/run an ldap server etc. Only libraries are installed systemwide. No ldap server software is installed systemwide. I do have root access, but I don't think I should need it. If I can get it installed under /home/ben, after some experimentation, I'll install it in /home/openldap after creating an openldap user. I don't know what the debian system uses the ldap libraries it came with for, but I should be able to use my own local version without dealing with that I would think. This is what I do : 1) Install Berkeley DB 4.6.21 in /home/ben/opt/bdb $ cd db-4.6.21/build_unix $ ../dist/configure --prefix=/home/ben/opt/bdb $ make && make install $ export LD_RUN_PATH=/home/ben/opt/bdb/lib $ export CPPFLAGS='-I /home/ben/opt/bdb/include' $ export LDFLAGS='-L /home/ben/opt/bdb/lib' $ cd 2) Install OpenLDAP $ cd openldap-2.4.6 $ ./configure --prefix=/home/ben/opt/openldap $ make depend $ make Making all in /home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6 Entering subdirectory include make[1]: Entering directory `/home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6/include' make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all'. make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6/include' Entering subdirectory libraries make[1]: Entering directory `/home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6/libraries' Making all in /home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6/libraries Entering subdirectory liblutil make[2]: Entering directory `/home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6/libraries/liblutil' make[2]: Nothing to be done for `all'. make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6/libraries/liblutil' Entering subdirectory liblber make[2]: Entering directory `/home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6/libraries/liblber' /bin/sh ../..//libtool --mode=link cc -static -g -O2 -L /home/ben/opt/bdb/lib -o dtest dtest.o liblber.la ../../libraries/liblutil/liblutil.a -lresolv cc -g -O2 /home/ben/opt/bdb/lib -o dtest dtest.o -L/home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6/libraries/liblber ./.libs/liblber.a ../../libraries/liblutil/liblutil.a -lresolv /usr/bin/ld: /home/ben/opt/bdb/lib: No such file: File format not recognized collect2: ld returned 1 exit status make[2]: *** [dtest] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6/libraries/liblber' make[1]: *** [all-common] Error 1 make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/ben/src/openldap/openldap-2.4.6/libraries' make: *** [all-common] Error 1 3) Let's investigate: $ ls /home/ben/opt/bdb bin docs include lib $ ls -l /home/ben/opt/bdb/lib -rw-r--r-- 1 ben ben 1571838 Nov 28 21:44 libdb-4.6.a -rw-r--r-- 1 ben ben 813 Nov 28 21:44 libdb-4.6.la -rwxr-xr-x 1 ben ben 1248813 Nov 28 21:44 libdb-4.6.so lrwxrwxrwx 1 ben ben 12 Nov 28 21:44 libdb-4.so -> libdb-4.6.so -rw-r--r-- 1 ben ben 1571838 Nov 28 21:44 libdb.a lrwxrwxrwx 1 ben ben 12 Nov 28 21:44 libdb.so -> libdb-4.6.so $ vi libdb-4.6.a The first bit looks like: !<arch> / 1196286289 0 0 0 27970 ` ^@^@^E0^@^@m\xea^@^@m\xea^@^@m\xea^@^@m\xea^@^@u"^@^@ Not sure what that means, but someone might... $ vi libdb-4.so The first bit looks like: ^?ELF^A^A^A^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^C^@^C^@^A^@^@^@\xf0i^A^@4^@^@^@x\xde^Q^@^@^@^@^@4^ @ ^@^D^@(^@^_^@^\^@^A^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@\xe8\x85^Q^@\xe8 Hey! more nonsense, but ELF is familiar and seems like a plausable for a linux library... I also get this error with openldap-2.3.39 and db-4.5.20 I could not use openldap-2.3.39 with db-4.6.21 because I get incompatible version. The configure scripts looks for db versions 4.2 though 4.5 and spits out that error otherwise. Anyway, thanks for any help.