Cannot find -lGL

[DeathByDenim]

I was trying to compile a OpenGL program, but it fails to compile. I suppose the package this bug is in is really libglvnd-dev, but I could not find that in Launchpad.

Anyway, the linking error is:
/usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-ld: cannot find -lGL
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

This seems to be because the symlink libGL.so is missing. If I go to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu and type:
  sudo ln -s libGL.so.1 libGL.so
then compiling works.

Here is a (nonsensical) test program:
#include <GL/gl.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
        glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);

        return 0;
}

which I compile with:
  gcc testgl.c -lGL

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: libgl1 1.0.0-2ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-20.21-generic 4.15.17
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Fri May 11 15:48:17 2018
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-04-29 (12 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
SourcePackage: libglvnd
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Scott Talbert (swt-techie)]

Do you have the proprietary nvidia driver installed by chance?

[N. Miller (urklang)]

I just ran into the same bug and can confirm that the workaround works. I do happen to be running the proprietary Nvidia driver.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

you should just install libglvnd-dev which ships the link

[Scott Talbert (swt-techie)]

@Timo - it isn't completely clear, but it sounds like the original reporter had libglvnd-dev installed. My suspicion on this is that the proprietary driver wiped out the link somehow, but I couldn't reproduce that when I tried.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

nothing would suggest that from what I can see.. and the nvidia driver in the archive should work fine with glvnd, so unless the driver is from a 3rd party (which we don't support) things should be ok

[DeathByDenim (silvercanarie-2)]

Oh, sorry. I'm really late to reply to this. Yeah, I do have the proprietary nVidia drivers installed. Those drivers came from the default Ubuntu repositories.

[Dan Kegel (dank)]

This just hit me as well, on a kosher 18.04 system.

I recently upgraded to a newer nvidia card, so that must have mangled it somehow.

Looks like three of its symlinks got nuked:

ls: cannot access '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libEGL.so': No such file or directory
ls: cannot access '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so': No such file or directory
ls: cannot access '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLESv2.so': No such file or directory
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Jun 5 07:16 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLdispatch.so -> libGLdispatch.so.0.0.0
...
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4697 Jan 25 2018 /usr/share/doc/libglvnd-dev/copyright

Doing

sudo apt install --reinstall libglvnd-dev

resolved the problem here.

[efa (efa)]

hit the trouble today. No proprietary Nvidia driver in use, only X.Org Nouveau

I had package 'libglvnd-dev' installed, but still miss the files/link:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libEGL.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLESv2.so
while are present the other present in the package:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLX.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLdispatch.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libOpenGL.so

sudo apt install --reinstall libglvnd-dev
do not solved the trouble

[efa (efa)]

worked:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu$ sudo ln -s libGL.so.1.0.0 libGL.so

[efa (efa)]

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu$ sudo ln -s libEGL.so.1.0.0 libEGL.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu$ sudo ln -s libGLESv1_CM.so.1.0.0 libGLESv1_CM.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu$ sudo ln -s libGLESv2.so.2.0.0 libGLESv2.so