/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lcap and -zstd: No such file or directory

[Gianla]

I'm using Manjaro Linux. I had those two problems while compiling tor specifically, after everything else was compiled:
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lcap: No such file or directory
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -zstd: No such file or directory
If somebody has the same errors and you want to save yourself an headache, it is sufficient to add the argument --disable-zstd in torConf for the second error, and to git add libcap and make it manually (it normally creates a .a and a .so library, which I apparently didn't have).

So maybe it is necessary to:

1. add the --disable-zstd argument;
2. cite in the dependencies libcap.

It took me a bit of work but I really hope this will be helpful!

[cretz]

Thanks, this issue may help others with this error.

(I admit I do not work on this repo really any more)

[elimisteve]

Had the same problem on Ubuntu 25.04! Thanks @Gianla 👍; the same fix worked.

[Gianla]

Had the same problem on Ubuntu 25.04! Thanks @Gianla 👍; the same fix worked.

You're welcome :) You may want to specify which of the two you had, so that others will understand better.

[elimisteve]

I ran into both the zstd and libcap issues. I successfully built the static version of Tor!... but now Tor isn't connecting 🤔. Investigating whether manually building libcap + disabling zstd somehow messed up Tor, or whether the connection issue is unrelated...

[elimisteve]

I had to add this to make it so the (successfully built static version of) Tor can connect:

// Enable the network (bine starts with DisableNetwork=1 by default)                                                    
log.Info("Enabling Tor network...")
if err := torService.Control.SetConf(control.KeyVals("DisableNetwork", "0")...); err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("failed to enable tor network: %v", err)
}

[Gianla]

@elimisteve good! You may want now to specify where, or do a pull request (even if it won't be accepted, others might download it directly) :)

[elimisteve]

Ah, instead of manually running DisableNetwork=0 above, this is better: using the built-in torService.EnableNetwork(ctx, true)! Sweet.

       86 -    // Enable the network (bine starts with DisableNetwork=1 by default)
       87 -    log.Info("Enabling Tor network...")
       88 -    if err := torService.Control.SetConf(control.KeyVals("DisableNetwork", "0")...); err != nil {
       89 -      return fmt.Errorf("failed to enable tor network: %v", err)
       90 -    }
       91 -  
       92 -    // Load or generate onion key
       86 +    // Load or generate onion key before enabling network
       87      keyPath := filepath.Join(keyDir, "onion_key")
       88      var key ed25519.PrivateKey
       89      
     ...
       118        log.Info("Loaded existing onion service key")
       119      }
       120    
       121 -    // Wait for tor to be ready (5 minutes timeout for DigitalOcean/cloud environments)
       122 -    log.Info("Waiting for Tor to bootstrap (may take up to 5 minutes)...")
       123 -    if err := waitForTor(torService, 5*time.Minute); err != nil {
       121 +    // Enable the network and wait for bootstrap (bine starts with DisableNetwork=1 by default)
       122 +    log.Info("Enabling Tor network and waiting for bootstrap (may take up to 5 minutes)...")
       123 +    ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 5*time.Minute)
       124 +    defer cancel()
       125 +    
       126 +    if err := torService.EnableNetwork(ctx, true); err != nil {
       127        return fmt.Errorf("tor failed to bootstrap: %v", err)
       128      }
       129      
       130 +    log.Info("Tor successfully bootstrapped!")
       131 +