Installing SDL2 on Linux

exebook picture exebook · Feb 5, 2014 · Viewed 70.8k times · Source

I try to run simple test.cpp from Twinklebar SDL tutorial, I get this error:

test.cpp:2:10: fatal error: 'SDL2/SDL.h' file not found

So I look up the sdl development package in Ubuntu/Mint:

aptitude search sdl | grep 2

All I can find is this:

libsdl1.2-dev

Does this mean my only option is to install from sources?

Answer

Leonardo picture Leonardo · Jun 29, 2014

It depends which Ubuntu version you are running but yes, there is a libsdl2 package for Ubuntu: http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=sdl2

The package you want is called libsdl2-dev.

Also, about the #include <SDL/SDL.h> line, it seems the recommended way doing it is by adjusting your compiler flags to add SDL's include pah and use #include "SDL.h". See https://forums.libsdl.org/viewtopic.php?t=5997 for more details on that.