Installing xchat-gnome from the source, on Ubuntu 12.04 / 64 bit

Building and installing xchat-gnome from the source, on Ubuntu 12.04 / 64 bit is pretty simple.

0) Install git, if you don't have already.
$ sudo apt-get install git-core

1) Check out the source code of xchat-gnome.

$ git clone git://git.gnome.org/xchat-gnome

If you are going to build it at a later time, it is time to take a git update too (just like an svn up).
$ git pull
 

2) Get the dependencies from the repositories (If you are not following this, you will end up installing them one-by-one, as I did. Explained below under "Trial and Error - How I got the dependencies" - only for the interested, as that is an optional read).

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-common gnome-doc-utils libnotify-dev libvorbis-dev libnotify-dev libgconf2-dev libltdl-dev
 

Note: There may be more dependencies, that I may already have had in my system. If complained during the step (4), make sure to install them too!

3) Libcanberra!

Download and install libcanberra 0.29, since the version in the repositories is 0.28, and at least 0.29 is required for xchat-gnome.

Extract the tar and cd to libcanberra-0.29
$ ./configure

$ make

$ sudo make install 

4) Now building!

Move to the xchat-gnome folder
$ cd xchat-gnome

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

5) Start xchat-gnome!
Now you may start xchat, by typing as below.
$ xchat-gnome

[Optional Read] Trial and Error - How I got the dependencies

Attempting a build, from the xchat-gnome directory.

$ sh autogen.shYou need to install gnome-common from the GNOME CVS

Let's install gnome-common
$ sudo apt-get install gnome-common

Retry.

$ sh autogen.sh
***Error***: You must have gnome-doc-utils >= 0.4.2 installed
  to build xchat-gnome.  Download the appropriate package for
  from your distribution or get the source tarball at
    http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gnome-doc-utils/

Let's install gnome-doc-utils.
$ sudo apt-get install gnome-doc-utils

Retry.
$ sh autogen.sh
checking for LIBNOTIFY... no
configure: error: Package requirements (libnotify >= 0.7) were not met:

No package 'libnotify' found

Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
installed software in a non-standard prefix.

Alternatively, you may set the environment variables LIBNOTIFY_CFLAGS
and LIBNOTIFY_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
See the pkg-config man page for more details.

Let's install libnotify.
$ sudo apt-get install libnotify-dev

Retry.
$ sh autogen.sh
checking for LIBCANBERRAGTK... no
configure: error: Package requirements (libcanberra-gtk3 >= 0.29) were not met:

No package 'libcanberra-gtk3' found

Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
installed software in a non-standard prefix.

Alternatively, you may set the environment variables LIBCANBERRAGTK_CFLAGS
and LIBCANBERRAGTK_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
See the pkg-config man page for more details.

Let's install libcanberra-gtk3.
$ sudo apt-get install libcanberra-gtk3-dev


Retry.
$ sh autogen.sh
oh-oh.. minimal version requirement not met!
checking whether to enable notification sounds using libcanberra... yes
checking for LIBCANBERRAGTK... no
configure: error: Package requirements (libcanberra-gtk3 >= 0.29) were not met:

Requested 'libcanberra-gtk3 >= 0.29' but version of libcanberra-gtk3 is 0.28

Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
installed software in a non-standard prefix.

Alternatively, you may set the environment variables LIBCANBERRAGTK_CFLAGS
and LIBCANBERRAGTK_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
See the pkg-config man page for more details.
Let's download libcanberra 0.29

Extract the tar and cd to libcanberra-0.29

$ ./configure
configure: WARNING: *** lynx not found, plain text README will not be built ***
checking for VORBIS... no
configure: error: Package requirements ( vorbisfile ) were not met:

No package 'vorbisfile' found

Let's install vorbisfile
$ sudo apt-get install libvorbis-dev

Again,
$ ./configure
It is successful now.

Let's make.
$ make$ sudo make install 

Now back to xchat-gnome directory
$ sh autogen.sh
Successful!

Now make!
$ make 
$ sudo make install

Now it is built and configured!

Now you may start xchat, by typing as below.
$ xchat-gnome