%general-entities; ]> Zlib Zlib is known to build its shared library incorrectly if CFLAGS is specified in the environment. If you are using your own CFLAGS variable, be sure to add the -fPIC directive to your CFLAGS for the duration of the below configure command, then remove it afterwards. Prepare Zlib for compilation: ./configure --prefix=/usr --shared --libdir=/lib Compile the package: make To test the results, issue: make check. Install the shared library: make install Now also build the non-shared (static) library: make clean ./configure --prefix=/usr make To again test the results, issue: make check. Install the static library: make install And fix the permissions on the static library: chmod 644 /usr/lib/libz.a Installed libraries libz[a,so] libz* libz* contains compression and un-compression functions used by some programs.