You must compile and install as root. If you don't nothing bad will happen during compilation, but certain tools won't be able to become setuid root which is required for proper operation. However, this raises a risk of exposing your system to any holes in those tools that might be used to gain root access so use with caution. Install SVGAlib by running the following commands: patch -Np1 -i ../svgalib-1.4.3-vga.patch && make prefix=/usr install && cd doc && for dir in man?; do for file in $dir/*; do \ gunzip /usr/share/man/$file; done; done