https://github.com/libevent/libevent/pull/142

hack the build to generate a small libevent.so until we can sort out upstream

--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -236,14 +236,14 @@ am__objects_11 = buffer.lo bufferevent.lo bufferevent_filter.lo \
 	evutil_time.lo listener.lo log.lo $(am__objects_10)
 am__objects_12 = evdns.lo event_tagging.lo evrpc.lo http.lo
 am_libevent_la_OBJECTS = $(am__objects_11) $(am__objects_12)
-libevent_la_OBJECTS = $(am_libevent_la_OBJECTS)
+libevent_la_OBJECTS = libevent_core.la libevent_extra.la
 AM_V_lt = $(am__v_lt_@AM_V@)
 am__v_lt_ = $(am__v_lt_@AM_DEFAULT_V@)
 am__v_lt_0 = --silent
 am__v_lt_1 = 
 libevent_la_LINK = $(LIBTOOL) $(AM_V_lt) --tag=CC $(AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS) \
 	$(LIBTOOLFLAGS) --mode=link $(CCLD) $(AM_CFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) \
-	$(libevent_la_LDFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@
+	$(libevent_la_LDFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -Wl,--no-as-needed -o $@
 @INSTALL_LIBEVENT_FALSE@am_libevent_la_rpath =
 @INSTALL_LIBEVENT_TRUE@am_libevent_la_rpath = -rpath $(libdir)
 libevent_core_la_DEPENDENCIES = @LTLIBOBJS@ $(am__DEPENDENCIES_1)
@@ -1020,7 +1020,7 @@ EXTRA_DIST = ChangeLog-1.4 ChangeLog-2.0 Doxyfile LICENSE \
 	whatsnew-2.1.txt $(PLATFORM_DEPENDENT_SRC) \
 	test/check-dumpevents.py test/regress.gen.c test/regress.gen.h \
 	test/regress.rpc test/rpcgen_wrapper.sh test/test.sh
-LIBEVENT_LIBS_LA = libevent.la libevent_core.la libevent_extra.la \
+LIBEVENT_LIBS_LA = libevent_core.la libevent_extra.la libevent.la \
 	$(am__append_1) $(am__append_3)
 @INSTALL_LIBEVENT_TRUE@lib_LTLIBRARIES = $(LIBEVENT_LIBS_LA)
 @INSTALL_LIBEVENT_TRUE@pkgconfig_DATA = $(LIBEVENT_PKGCONFIG)
--- a/libevent.pc.in
+++ b/libevent.pc.in
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Description: libevent is an asynchronous notification event loop library
 Version: @VERSION@
 Requires:
 Conflicts:
-Libs: -L${libdir} -levent
+Libs: -L${libdir} -levent_core -levent_extra
 Libs.private: @LIBS@
 Cflags: -I${includedir}