(These may not be the best solutions, but they work for me.)
1. Create a DLL--use the linker option -shared to create a shared library ( *.so ).
2. Symbol not found at runtime--use linker option -uMyStaticSymbol when linking a share with static and other share libraries. This will ensure your static code is included in your target share library. LinuxODBC includes a small program called dltest which can help with this problem.
3. Libs and Symbols not found--make sure your libs can be found. Ready to give up? Put them into /usr/libs.
4. Manually loading DLLs--do a man on dlopen. Manually loading a DLL is easier than most people would think, but it is not usually a requirement.
5. ODBC system information--use the Odbcinst library to read/write ODBC system information from code or use ODBCConfig from your desktop. Try not to read/write the INI files directly, as the information may be stored elsewhere in the future.