Just in case you were wondering, I use the following command line to compile TnL:

> cd ~/src/TnL-build
> ALINCLUDE=$HOME/src/portable/common/include
> ../TnL-source/configure CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium-m" \
     --enable-release \
    --prefix=/home/jonas/src/TnL/ \
     --with-io-dir=/home/jonas/src/git/Io-work/ \
    --with-libpng-libs="/usr/lib/libpng.a /usr/lib/libz.a" \
    --with-openal-libs="/home/jonas/src/portable/src/.libs/libopenal.a /home/jonas/src/freealut-1.0.0/src/.libs/libalut.a" \
    --with-openal-cflags="-I$ALINCLUDE -I$ALINCLUDE/AL -I$HOME/src/freealut-1.0.0/include/AL/"

You see, libpng and openal get compiled in statically