I am having difficulty compiling a gnome/gtk+ program on a Ubuntu 8.04
system, and I assume I don't have a complete complement of packages
installed (e.g. I don't have a /usr/include/libgnomeui-2.0 and who
knows what else). I have previously done a lot of work on the program
without compile difficulties in another Ubuntu 8.04 system that I set up a year or more ago, so I therefore suspect an incomplete software environment in my current system.

I would very much appreciate if someone would let me know what
(Ubuntu/Debian) packages are required.

Since you provide no info we can't know what exactly happens (beside the fact that the compilation fails, that is).

The only useful tip that I can give you without looking at the errors is that binary distros usually do not ship the header files withing the main package. They are usually shipped into a -devel or -dev package that starts with the same name. For example, if you need libgnome-ui to compile a given program, you might also need to install libgnome-ui-devel, libgnome-ui-dev or whatever it's called in your distro.

If you can't find the way around, provide the output of the configure script (or whatever is failing).

Your post put me on track, and I have compilation going.