title: Installing Matplotlib on CentOS 6.5
body: <p>I'm trying to get matplotlib-1.4.0 installed on CentOS 6.5 with Python 2.7.8. I've tried installing with pip and from source. I initially got an error message stating I needed a newer version of Freetype2, which I then installed (version 2.5.3) to /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/include, and /usr/local/lib. The older version of Freetype2 (2.3.11) is in /usr/bin, /usr/include/freetype2/freetype, and /usr/lib.</p>
  
  <p>Now when I try installing matplotlib (python setup.py build) it looks like the include paths are all pointing to the wrong (old) version of Freetype2, and I can't figure out how to change the appropriate paths to point to the newer version of Freetype2. The actual error message is below, and is pretty messy. I couldn't find much about his error online, but I can see that the wrong Freetype2 path so I'm guessing that's what causing the issue.  Any tips?</p>
  
  <p>Found tips on other threads about adding /usr/include/freetype symlink to point to /usr/local/include/freetype2, but that didn't help.</p>
  
  <pre><code>building 'matplotlib.ft2font' extension
  gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -O3 -m64 -mfpmath=sse -msse2 -mtune=generic -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -fPIC -DPY_ARRAY_UNIQUE_SYMBOL=MPL_matplotlib_ft2font_ARRAY_API -DPYCXX_ISO_CPP_LIB=1 -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include -I. -Iextern -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/include/python2.7 -c src/ft2font.cpp -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/src/ft2font.o
  In file included from /usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/ndarraytypes.h:1761:0,
                   from /usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/ndarrayobject.h:17,
                   from src/file_compat.h:7,
                   from src/ft2font.cpp:7:
  /usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/npy_1_7_deprecated_api.h:15:2: warning: #warning "Using deprecated NumPy API, disable it by " "#defining NPY_NO_DEPRECATED_API NPY_1_7_API_VERSION" [-Wcpp]
  In file included from src/ft2font.cpp:7:0:
  src/file_compat.h:31:0: warning: "npy_fseek" redefined [enabled by default]
  /usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/npy_common.h:86:0: note: this is the location of the previous definition
  src/file_compat.h:32:0: warning: "npy_ftell" redefined [enabled by default]
  /usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/npy_common.h:91:0: note: this is the location of the previous definition
  src/ft2font.cpp: In member function ‘Py::Object FT2Image::py_write_bitmap(const Py::Tuple&amp;)’:
  src/ft2font.cpp:184:15: warning: unused variable ‘offset’ [-Wunused-variable]
  gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -O3 -m64 -mfpmath=sse -msse2 -mtune=generic -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -fPIC -DPY_ARRAY_UNIQUE_SYMBOL=MPL_matplotlib_ft2font_ARRAY_API -DPYCXX_ISO_CPP_LIB=1 -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include -I. -Iextern -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/include/python2.7 -c src/mplutils.cpp -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/src/mplutils.o
  In file included from /usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/include/python2.7/Python.h:8:0,
                   from src/mplutils.h:18,
                   from src/mplutils.cpp:6:
  /usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/include/python2.7/pyconfig.h:1182:0: warning: "_POSIX_C_SOURCE" redefined [enabled by default]
  /usr/include/features.h:162:0: note: this is the location of the previous definition
  /usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/include/python2.7/pyconfig.h:1204:0: warning: "_XOPEN_SOURCE" redefined [enabled by default]
  /usr/include/features.h:164:0: note: this is the location of the previous definition
  gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -O3 -m64 -mfpmath=sse -msse2 -mtune=generic -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -fPIC -DPY_ARRAY_UNIQUE_SYMBOL=MPL_matplotlib_ft2font_ARRAY_API -DPYCXX_ISO_CPP_LIB=1 -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include -I. -Iextern -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/include/python2.7 -c extern/CXX/cxxsupport.cxx -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/extern/CXX/cxxsupport.o
  gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -O3 -m64 -mfpmath=sse -msse2 -mtune=generic -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -fPIC -DPY_ARRAY_UNIQUE_SYMBOL=MPL_matplotlib_ft2font_ARRAY_API -DPYCXX_ISO_CPP_LIB=1 -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include -I. -Iextern -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/include/python2.7 -c extern/CXX/cxx_extensions.cxx -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/extern/CXX/cxx_extensions.o
  gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -O3 -m64 -mfpmath=sse -msse2 -mtune=generic -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -fPIC -DPY_ARRAY_UNIQUE_SYMBOL=MPL_matplotlib_ft2font_ARRAY_API -DPYCXX_ISO_CPP_LIB=1 -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include -I. -Iextern -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/include/python2.7 -c extern/CXX/IndirectPythonInterface.cxx -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/extern/CXX/IndirectPythonInterface.o
  gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -O3 -m64 -mfpmath=sse -msse2 -mtune=generic -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -fPIC -DPY_ARRAY_UNIQUE_SYMBOL=MPL_matplotlib_ft2font_ARRAY_API -DPYCXX_ISO_CPP_LIB=1 -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include -I. -Iextern -I/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/include/python2.7 -c extern/CXX/cxxextensions.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/extern/CXX/cxxextensions.o
  g++ -pthread -shared build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/src/ft2font.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/src/mplutils.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/extern/CXX/cxxsupport.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/extern/CXX/cxx_extensions.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/extern/CXX/IndirectPythonInterface.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/extern/CXX/cxxextensions.o -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib64 -L/usr/lib -L/usr/lib64 -L/usr/local/python2/2.7.8/x86_64/gcc46/nonet/lib -lfreetype -lstdc++ -lm -lpython2.7 -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/matplotlib/ft2font.so
  /usr/bin/ld: /usr/local/lib/libpython2.7.a(abstract.o): relocation R_X86_64_32S against `_Py_NotImplementedStruct' can not be used when making a shared object; recompile with -fPIC
  /usr/local/lib/libpython2.7.a: could not read symbols: Bad value
  collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
  error: command 'g++' failed with exit status 1  
  </code></pre>