What is the contents of config.log?

Schoolboy error: try installing libc6 g++ gcc

now that I have a compiler, it seems to work far better.
;-)

just for info the (abbreviated) output of the above was:

sudo apt-get install libc6 g++ gcc

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done

libc6 is already the newest version.

gcc is already the newest version.

The following extra packages will be installed:

g++-4.2 libc6-dev libstdc++6-4.2-dev linux-libc-dev

 Now am making progress. :-)

That's great!

OK so it has been a long weekend. (I "accidentally" deleted the /etc/udev/rules.d directory... :-P)
but I have recovered everything (live cd is a lifesaver) and am back to the "making progress" part.
I followed the steps given here.

when I type ./configure everything works pretty well except for the following exerpt:

checking that we can link gtk/gdk... yes
checking cairo.h usability... yes

checking cairo.h presence... no
configure: WARNING: cairo.h: accepted by the compiler, rejected by the preprocessor!
configure: WARNING: cairo.h: proceeding with the compiler's result
checking for cairo.h... yes
checking for pkghildon... no

checking for Linux headers with DEVFS_DISCONNECT support... yes
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: WARNING:  Makefile.in seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
config.status: creating config.h

*** Configuration complete
*** Check the configure output if a target you want is not configured.
*** The following targets are configured:
    spectool_raw spectool_net spectool_curses spectool_gtk

 I can run the make command seemingly with no trouble and I copied the 99-wispy.rules file into my newly recovered rules.d folder ;-)

 BUT

 When I attempt to run spectools_gtk i get the following:

@laptop:~/Desktop/spectools-2009-06-R1$ spectool_gtk
The program 'spectool_gtk' is currently not installed.  You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install spectools
bash: spectool_gtk: command not found
@laptop:~/Desktop/spectools-2009-06-R1$

Do we think the above cairo.h fialure has anything to do with the problem I am having?

Should I make spectool_gtk executable?

 While you guys read, I'll keep fiddling!

(but will avoid deleting any protected directroies! hehehe)

Yeah, try

chmod +x spectool_gtk

then try to run it with ./spectool_gtk or . spectool_gtk

;-)

SORTED!

This escapade took a while, but thanks for teh (basic) linux support!

gonna go and scan everything i can now... :-D MUAHAHHAHAHAH.
thanks notaclue!

No problem. I have dealt with linux before, I seem to forget simple shell commands to sometimes.