Some issues about building Inkscape from source
 

I need to use Inkscape for an specific task and since my Slackware didn't have it I decided to install it. Since I try to always compile from source I went to the Inkscape site and downloaded what they say is necessary to successfully compile (there-s a specific section called "Compiling Inkscape"). I compiled without any issues the following dependencies:

Required Dependencies
* Boehm-GC (version 6.7)
* libsigc++ (version 2.0)
* glibmm (version 2.8)
* gtkmm (version 2.8)

Extension Dependencies
* XML::Parser
* XML::XQL

After this it was supposed that I would be able to compile Inkscape, but this is the first thing I found upon ./configure:

...
checking for INKSCAPE... configure: error: Package requirements (gdkmm-2.4 glibmm-2.4 gtkmm-2.4 >= 2.10.0 gtk+-2.0 libxml-2.0 >= 2.6.11 libxslt >= 1.0.15 cairo sigc++-2.0 >= 2.0.12 gthread-2.0 >= 2.0 libpng >= 1.2) were not met:

Requested 'gtkmm-2.4 >= 2.10.0' but version of gtkmm is 2.8.12

Finally, I was able to compile everything required but with version gtkmm v2.10.10. But after that I still had to add cairomm-1.2.0. When running ./configure on the inkscape-0.46/ dir I started to get an error message saying that I didn't have the boost package. So I went to the boost site and downloaded boost_1_35_0, which I was also able to install without any issues. This is what I get when doing slocate, here I don't see any libboost-dev, but googling about it didn't throw any solid results (a lot of mentions to Debian, though):

/usr/local/lib/libboost_regex-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_prg_exec_monitor-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_filesystem-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_iostreams-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_test_exec_monitor-gcc41-mt.a
/usr/local/lib/libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_wave-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_program_options-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_python-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_wserialization-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_program_options-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_iostreams-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_system-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_signals-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_signals-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_wave-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_program_options-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_iostreams-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_serialization-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_wave-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_prg_exec_monitor-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_thread-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_graph-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_serialization-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_python-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_signals-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_test_exec_monitor-gcc41-mt-1_35.a
/usr/local/lib/libboost_regex-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_system-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_wserialization-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_python-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_serialization-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_graph-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_thread-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_regex-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_thread-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_filesystem-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_wserialization-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_graph-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_filesystem-gcc41-mt-1_35.so.1.35.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_prg_exec_monitor-gcc41-mt-1_35.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_system-gcc41-mt.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework-gcc41-mt-1_35.so

And I keep getting the following message with ./configure for Inkscape:

...
checking for INKSCAPE... yes
checking for Mac OS X Carbon support... no
checking boost/concept_check.hpp usability... no
checking boost/concept_check.hpp presence... no
checking for boost/concept_check.hpp... no
configure: error: You need the boost package (e.g. libboost-dev)

I found information about this being a bug, but I still have a couple of questions:

1.- What am I missing? Is it possible for the compiling intructions from Inkscape's site be wrong?
2.- Where can I find libboost-dev? Because even though I've installed it I don't see it on the list.

Any light you can shed on this will be welcome. :)

Meanwhile I'll try out the package for Inkscape 0.45.1 from slacky.eu and see what happens. ;)

I installed Inscape using slackbuilds from Slackbuilds.org, and it worked with no problem. The dependency chain is incredibly long, but there where no problems during the installation. Check out the scripts to see what they do differently.

Agreed - the slackbuild from slackbuilds.org works great and all the dependencies are there as well.

+1 for SlackBuilds. I just installed Inkscape this morning in fact. There aren't that many dependencies (depending on what you have installed already). I only needed four of them myself. Plus you'll still be compiling it specifically for your own machine and creating a package you can install and remove cleanly. Take a look. At the very least you'll get an idea what you're missing.

Cool. I've downloaded the the SlackBuilds and I'll try those. I'm not at home right now but I'll be in about an hour. :) I'll let you know how it goes. ;)

Of course it does - look who the author and maintainer is... ;-)

-RW

Some issues about building Inkscape from source
 

The resolution is devious. When make installed the Boost app it created a directory in /usr/local/include called boost-1_35 as the upper-level boost header directory. below that directory is the actual boost directory. What you need to do create a link named boost in /usr/local/include . /usr/local/include/boost link to /usr/local/include/boost-1_35/boost. This will resolve the problem.

It worked!!
 

Hi, sorry for taking so long to reply.

I was having some trouble using the SlackBuilds, but mostly due to my little experience with them (I will have to practice that ;)), so, I decided to give a try to imciberrana43 suggestion. I did this as root within the /user/local/include/ directory following the instructions provided (after reviewing the man for ln :D):

#ln --symbolic /usr/local/include/boost_1_35_0/boost/ boost

No errors happened, so I went back to the inkscape directory and configured, which now passed successfully. I'm now within the make stage. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Thanks a lot!

I'm happy it worked!
 

I'm happy your problem was resolved.