checking build environment -------------------------- checking for gawk... no checking for header files ------------------------- checking expat.h usability... no checking expat.h presence... no checking for expat.h... no checking sql.h usability... no checking sql.h presence... no checking for sql.h... no checking for library functions ------------------------------ checking vfork.h usability... no checking vfork.h presence... no checking whether stat accepts an empty string... no checking for _doprnt... no checking for library containing XML_Parse... no checking for library containing SQLConnect... no configuring Sphinx ------------------ checking whether to compile with PostgreSQL support... no checking whether to compile with libstemmer support... no checking for libexpat... not found configure: WARNING: xmlpipe2 will NOT be available checking for UnixODBC... not found configure: WARNING: ODBC source support will NOT be available //---------------------------------------------------------------------- //---------------------------------------------------------------------- IF you wanted to install any of your negatives first like my example output above, it is NOT needed, but you can by installing them first, then re-run the configure above. For my list above, to install those: gawk: aptitude install gawk expat.h: apt-get install libexpat1-dev vfork.h: aptitude install libwvstreams-dev XML_Parse & xmlpipe2: aptitude install libxml-parser-perl PostgreSQL: apt-get install postgresq ODBC will install sql.h and the library SQLConnect, info: http://www.easysoft.com/developer/interfaces/odbc/linux.html libstemmer info: http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=libstemmer