If you are trying to build Synfig and having trouble, read this post.

This is a quick rundown on a few issues that you may run into at the moment. I'll expand this list as things move forward. Anyone willing to fix any of these issues and submit a patch will get a for the day.

• GCC 3.3 (3.4?) is required. GCC 4.0 doesn't work. This is a bug. GCC 4.0 is much more strict about syntax, so a few things are broken. Nothing major though.
• ETL fails “make check”. ETL is a mess. Ignore make check failing, and just do a make install. The parts that break aren't being used in Synfig.

The first issue is the kicker, and will likely be the most common problem that people will run into. Please submit bug reports!

Optional Dependencies

The following packages aren't required, but will improve functionality:

• libpng (Required for PNG file support)
• libjpeg (Required for JPEG file support)
• openexr (Required for EXR file support)
• freetype (Required for simple text layer)
• imagemagick (Allows you to save and load in a variety of file formats)
• ffmpeg (for saving compressed videos)
• fmod (For audio scrubbing support in Synfig Studio)