The error message you're encountering is straightforward - Nginx's GeoIP module requires the underlying GeoIP library to be installed on your system before compilation. This is a common dependency issue when compiling Nginx with additional modules.

For Ubuntu/Debian systems, you'll need to install:

sudo apt-get install libgeoip-dev geoip-database

For CentOS/RHEL systems:

sudo yum install GeoIP-devel

Here's a full example of compiling Nginx with GeoIP support:

# Install dependencies
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential libpcre3 libpcre3-dev zlib1g zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libgeoip-dev

# Download and extract Nginx
wget http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.23.3.tar.gz
tar -xzvf nginx-1.23.3.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.23.3

# Configure with GeoIP module
./configure --with-http_geoip_module \
            --with-stream_geoip_module \
            --with-http_ssl_module

# Compile and install
make
sudo make install

After installation, verify GeoIP is working with this Nginx configuration example:

http {
    geoip_country /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat;
    geoip_city /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoLiteCity.dat;
    
    server {
        location /myip {
            return 200 "$remote_addr $geoip_country_code $geoip_city";
        }
    }
}

If you still encounter issues:

1. Verify library paths: ldconfig -p | grep GeoIP
2. Check for database files in /usr/share/GeoIP/
3. Ensure you're using compatible versions of Nginx and GeoIP

For those preferring pre-built packages:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install nginx-extras

# CentOS/RHEL
sudo yum install nginx-module-geoip

Remember to load the module in nginx.conf:

load_module modules/ngx_http_geoip_module.so;

The error message clearly indicates that Nginx's GeoIP module requires the underlying GeoIP library to be installed on your system before compilation. This is a common dependency issue when building Nginx from source with optional modules.

You'll need both the GeoIP C library and its development headers. On Debian/Ubuntu systems, these are separate packages:

sudo apt-get install libgeoip1 libgeoip-dev

For RedHat/CentOS systems:

sudo yum install GeoIP GeoIP-devel

Here's a full example of compiling Nginx with GeoIP support after installing dependencies:

# Download latest Nginx source
wget http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.23.3.tar.gz
tar -zxvf nginx-1.23.3.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.23.3

# Configure with GeoIP module
./configure --with-http_geoip_module \
            --prefix=/etc/nginx \
            --sbin-path=/usr/sbin/nginx \
            --modules-path=/usr/lib/nginx/modules \
            --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf \
            --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log \
            --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log \
            --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid \
            --lock-path=/var/run/nginx.lock

# Compile and install
make
sudo make install

After installation, verify that the GeoIP module is properly loaded:

nginx -V 2>&1 | grep -o with-http_geoip_module

You should see with-http_geoip_module in the output if successful.

If you're using Nginx 1.9.11+, you can compile GeoIP as a dynamic module:

./configure --with-compat --with-http_geoip_module=dynamic
make
sudo make install

Then load it in your nginx.conf:

load_module modules/ngx_http_geoip_module.so;

• Ensure you have build-essential or equivalent installed
• Check that the GeoIP library paths are in your linker's search path
• Verify package versions are compatible
• Consider using MaxMind's libmaxminddb as an alternative