Steps to build SDL natively with the Cygwin environment available at: http://www.cygwin.com/ These steps assume that you are comfortable with the UNIX environment. Step 1. Run the Cygwin setup program, install the default packages and the development packages (adding any extras you want, like vim). Step 2. Run the Cygwin shell. Further instructions assume you're in this shell. Step 3. Extract the SDL source into a directory and run: ./configure && make && make install Step 4. When you're ready to build SDL applications, copy SDL.dll from /usr/local/lib to whereever your SDL application source resides. Troubleshooting: =========================================================================== Q: I get an error when building and I unpacked the source in a path with spaces. A: Unpack the source in a path without spaces, like /tmp, and build there. =========================================================================== Q: I get the following error while building SDL: GL/gl.h: No such file or directory A: You need to get the OpenGL development headers from: http://www.libsdl.org/extras/win32/cygwin/opengl-devel.tar.gz You need to unpack these in the /usr directory. =========================================================================== Q: My version of SDL doesn't have DirectX support! A: You need to get the DirectX development headers and libraries from: http://www.libsdl.org/extras/win32/cygwin/directx-devel.tar.gz You need to unpack these in the /usr directory. =========================================================================== Q: My version of SDL doesn't have assembly support, NASM is not available. A: You need to get nasm assembler from: http://www.libsdl.org/extras/win32/cygwin/nasm.exe Put this file in the /usr/bin directory. =========================================================================== Q: SDL 1.3 links with libunicows.a, where can I find it? A: http://libunicows.sourceforge.net/ ===========================================================================