Linking problems are really fun... Like using gdb in the dark on incompatible exec or without debug symbols:
You change the order of the libraries or switch to dynamic linking for one of them and suddenly it works

Order of libraries does matter, yes?

Sure.

I now had the fun that my executable should be linked with a library that was not used by itself but by a shared library which was loaded at runtime. As the linker detected no use of the library the linking was removed and the program crashed with an undefined symbol. (In my opinion it's fucked up by design anyways as the shared library should be linking its dependency....)

But maybe that's the price we pay for our compilers becoming smarter than us (-;

I feel with you. These problems often end up with the "touch everything move things around IT WORKS DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING" kind of solution :/