Opencv – gstreamer plugin library not linking against opencv shared object library – “undefined symbol” on Ubuntu

I have tried this for now whole weekend – Saturday/Sunday and Monday spending couple of hours but to no avail. I am following the gstreamer plugin writer's guide
http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/doc/gstreamer/head/pwg/html/section-boiler-project-stamp.html. I had gstreamer-0.10 (sudo apt-get install method) and OpenCV 2.4 already installed before trying gstreamer plugin procedure. I am using default prefix (/usr/local/lib/gstreamer-0.10 for plugin testing during ./configure prior to sudo make && sudo make install)

I managed to generate the boilerplate code. Now I added a cvcreateImage like

static GstFlowReturn
gst_cvtestfilter_chain (GstPad * pad, GstBuffer * buf)
{
Gstcvtestfilter *filter;
GstBuffer *outbuf;
IplImage* cvImage = cvCreateImage(cvSize(cvwidth,cvheight),cvdepth, cvchannels);
.
.
}

If cvImage line is commented everything works smoothly. All tests are ok. Linking against OpenCV fails for some reason if I don't comment that line.

I modified the makefile.am to add OpenCV flags in src directory as

 # Note: plugindir is set in configure

##############################################################################
# TODO: change libgstcvtestfilter.la to something else, e.g. libmysomething.la     #
##############################################################################
plugin_LTLIBRARIES = libgstcvtestfilter.la

##############################################################################
# TODO: for the next set of variables, name the prefix if you named the .la, #
#  e.g. libmysomething.la => libmysomething_la_SOURCES                       #
#                            libmysomething_la_CFLAGS                        #
#                            libmysomething_la_LIBADD                        #
#                            libmysomething_la_LDFLAGS                       #
##############################################################################

# sources used to compile this plug-in
libgstcvtestfilter_la_SOURCES = gstcvtestfilter.c gstcvtestfilter.h

# compiler and linker flags used to compile this plugin, set in configure.ac
libgstcvtestfilter_la_CFLAGS = $(GST_CFLAGS) $(OPENCV_CFLAGS)
libgstcvtestfilter_la_LIBADD = $(GST_LIBS) $(OPENCV_LIBS)
libgstcvtestfilter_la_LDFLAGS = $(GST_PLUGIN_LDFLAGS) 
libgstcvtestfilter_la_LIBTOOLFLAGS = --tag=disable-static

# headers we need but don't want installed
noinst_HEADERS = gstcvtestfilter.h

I also modified configure.ac in the parent directory by adding

 dnl *** opencv ***
translit(dnm, m, l) AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_OPENCV, true)

  dnl we specify a max. version too because we set CV_NO_BACKWARD_COMPATIBILITY
  dnl and don't want the build to break when a new opencv version comes out.
  dnl Need to adjust this upwards once we know that our code compiles fine with
  dnl a new version and the no-backward-compatibility define. (There doesn't
  dnl seem to be a switch to suppress the warnings the cvcompat.h header
  dnl causes.)
  PKG_CHECK_MODULES(OPENCV, opencv >= 2.0.0 opencv <= 3.1.0 , [
    AC_PROG_CXX
    AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS
    OLD_CPPFLAGS=$CPPFLAGS
    CPPFLAGS=$OPENCV_CFLAGS
    AC_CHECK_HEADER(highgui.h, HAVE_HIGHGUI="yes", HAVE_HIGHGUI="no")
    AC_CHECK_HEADER(cvaux.h, HAVE_CVAUX="yes", HAVE_CVAUX="no")
    CPPFLAGS=$OLD_CPPFLAGS
    AC_LANG_C
    if test "x$HAVE_HIGHGUI" = "xno"; then
      AC_MSG_RESULT(highgui.h could not be found.)
      HAVE_OPENCV="no"
    elif test "x$HAVE_CVAUX" = "xno"; then
      AC_MSG_RESULT(cvaux.h could not be found.)
      HAVE_OPENCV="no"
    else
      HAVE_OPENCV="yes" 
      AC_SUBST(OPENCV_CFLAGS)
      AC_SUBST(OPENCV_LIBS)  
    fi
  ], [
    HAVE_OPENCV="no"
    AC_MSG_RESULT(no)
  ])

The compilation is fine – no errors.

Now when I run the plugin in pipeline I get this message

(gst-plugin-scanner:6396): GStreamer-WARNING **: Failed to load plugin '/usr/local/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstcvtestfilter.so': /usr/local/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstcvtestfilter.so: undefined symbol: cvCreateImage

So obviously my opencv situated in /usr/local/lib is not linking properly.

sudo gedit /etc/bash.bashrc contains

#Added By me
PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH

#Added By me
PATH=$PATH:/opt/Xilinx/13.4/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin
export PATH

GST_PLUGIN_PATH=$GST_PLUGIN_PATH:/usr/local/lib/gstreamer-0.10
export GST_PLUGIN_PATH

sudo gedit /etc/ld.so.conf.d/opencv.conf contains

/usr/local/lib

sudo gedit /etc/ld.so.conf.d/gst.conf contains

/usr/local/lib/gstreamer-0.10

sudo ldconfig -v

sudo gedit ~/.bashrc contains

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:/usr/local/lib/gstreamer-0.10

ldd /usr/local/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstcvtestfilter.so gives no opencv dependency which is strange

linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0xb77b6000)
libgstreamer-0.10.so.0 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0 (0xb76b0000)
libgobject-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgobject-2.0.so.0 (0xb7661000)
libglib-2.0.so.0 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0 (0xb7567000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0xb754c000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0xb73a7000)
libgmodule-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgmodule-2.0.so.0 (0xb73a2000)
libxml2.so.2 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libxml2.so.2 (0xb7255000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0xb7228000)
librt.so.1 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0xb721f000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0xb721a000)
libffi.so.6 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libffi.so.6 (0xb7213000)
libpcre.so.3 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpcre.so.3 (0xb71d7000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb77b7000)
libz.so.1 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0xb71c0000)

My OS is 32 bit 12.04 Ubuntu. If anyone can point me right direction I shall be grateful. Thanks.

Update: (June 29 2012)

Taking Cue from OpenCV experience I modified the configure.ac for OpenGL if someone is interested

AC_CHECK_HEADER(
    GL/gl.h,
    AC_DEFINE(
        [HAVE_OPENGL],
        [],
        Define to 1 if you have the <GL/gl.h> header file.
        )
        OPENGL_LIBS="$X_LIBS -lGL -lGLU -lpthread -lglut -lGLEW"
        opengl=yes,
    AC_MSG_WARN([*** no GL/gl.h -- opengl and SDL support disabled])
)
AC_SUBST(OPENGL_CFLAGS)
AC_SUBST(OPENGL_LIBS)


dnl AC_ARG_WITH(
dnl     opengl-cflags,
dnl     [  --with-opengl-cflags=PATH    Specify OpenGL cflags],
dnl     OPENGL_CFLAGS="$withval", OPENGL_CFLAGS="")
dnl AC_ARG_WITH(
dnl     opengl-libs,
dnl     [  --with-opengl-libs=PATH      Specify OpenGL libs (default is -lGL -lGLU -lpthread)],
dnl     OPENGL_LIBS="$withval", OPENGL_LIBS="-lGL -lGLU -lpthread -lglut -lGLEW")
dnl AC_SUBST(OPENGL_CFLAGS)
dnl AC_SUBST(OPENGL_LIBS)