Trying to use SP Flash Tool (Mediatek), latest version requires libpng12-0, which is not available

[Carl Fink <carlf@panix.com>]

Hi,

I'm running Buster (testing), and trying to set up the SP Flash
Tool. I downloaded the archive
(https://spflashtools.com/linux/sp-flash-tool-v5-1828-for-linux)
and unzipped it (it doesn't require installation), but when I
try to start the program I'm informed:

    error while loading shared libraries: libpng12.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

OK, but apt says:

    root@debian-nitpicking:/etc/udev/rules.d# apt-get install libpng12-dev
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree      
    Reading state information... Done
    Package libpng12-dev is not available, but is referred to by another package.
    This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
    is only available from another source

    E: Package 'libpng12-dev' has no installation candidate
    root@debian-nitpicking:/etc/udev/rules.d# apt-get install libpng12-0
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree      
    Reading state information... Done
    Package libpng12-0 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
    This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
    is only available from another source

    E: Package 'libpng12-0' has no installation candidate

OK ... I did search for and find others who had this problem, but
they all boiled down to "The package is not available for your
distro version."

So would I have to build from source? Any other ideas?

(Yo, Mediatek--stop requiring old libraries unless you build
static!)

Thanks.

-- 
Carl Fink          carl@finknetwork.com
Thinking and logic and stuff at Reasonably Literate
http://reasonablyliterate.com