FT_New_Face returns FT_Missing_Module

[Brian]

Hi,

tl;dr: No matter what I feed it, FT_New_Face always returns 0x0B, 
FT_Missing_Module.  Even if I feed it a file that isn't a font at all, 
whereupon I would expect FT_Invalid_File_Format or 
FT_Unknown_File_Format, I still get FT_Missing_Module.  How do I figure 
out what module is missing?

I'm working with a default build.  I've downloaded the source, 
freetype-2.10.0.tar.bz2.  I've installed all the dependent libraries.  
My configure command is completely plain, no arguments. I am linking my 
simple test program against the static libfreetype.a.  Here's my link step:

$ g++ -o font_test font_test.o objs/.libs/libfreetype.a -lpng -lz -lbz2 
-lharfbuzz

Here's the meat of my font_test.cpp (extremely simple):

 FT_Library s_lib;
 FT_Error err = FT_Init_FreeType(&s_lib);
 // .. check for errors ..
 FT_Face m_face;
 err = FT_New_Face(s_lib, filename, 0, &m_face);
 // .. check for errors...FT_Missing_Module

I've also tried reading the file into memory and using 
FT_New_Face_Memory, but the result is the same; FT_Missing_Module.

I hope this is an appropriate place for this question.  I appreciate 
being pointed elsewhere if this isn't the right place.

Many thanks,
-Brian

PS: My goal is to use freetype in an embedded environment.  I was able 
to cross-compile it without any problems, but it crashes, and this 
particular platform (ESP32-WROOM module) is basically impossible to 
debug.  So I figured I'd do a native build on my dev machine with debug 
symbols so I could step through and maybe figure out why the ESP32 was 
crashing...but I can't get past the FT_Missing_Module error.  
Ultimately, I want to hack and slash at libfreetype to get it as small 
as possible while maintaining the limited set of features I actually 
need (just rasterization and antialiasing for ttf fonts, basically).