In more recent versions of Ubuntu the developers have decided that libgtk1.2/libglib1.2 is obsolete and therefore has been removed. Unfortunately for me this causes a problem as I like to use Xdialog (which relies on libgtk1.2) for guified shell scripts. Most people would just go ahead and use Zenity which has it's uses, but lacks many features that Xdialog has. Xdialog hasn't been part of Ubuntu since Hardy so it needs to be compiled from source, but without the proper dev libraries either, we are out of luck. Or are we? Knut Auvor Grythe was gracious enough to host all the required library sources which we can compile and then use to compile Xdialog.
Add the repositories to your /etc/apt/sources.list (Karmic repos work for Lucid and Maverick):
deb http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/karmic ./
deb-src http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/karmic ./
Build and install the libraries:
sudo apt-get build-dep libglib1.2-dev
apt-get -b source libglib1.2-dev
sudo dpkg -i libglib1.2-dev_1.2.10-19build1_*.deb libglib1.2ldbl_1.2.10-19build1_*.deb
sudo apt-get build-dep libgtk1.2
apt-get -b source libgtk1.2
sudo dpkg -i libgtk1.2_1.2.10-18.1build2_*.deb libgtk1.2-common_1.2.10-18.1build2_all.deb libgtk1.2-dev_1.2.10-18.1build2_*.deb
Get Xdialog source code and extract it:
wget http://xdialog.free.fr/Xdialog-2.3.1.tar.bz2
tar xvf Xdialog-2.3.1.tar.bz2
Compile and install Xdialog:
cd Xdialog-2.3.1
./configure
make
sudo make install