Of course, sorry.
This is on Ubuntu 10.04 kernel 2.6.32-30-generic.  I'm using lucid sources with apt.

I'm trying to install from source as described on the wiki,
http://www.ros.org/wiki/electric/Installation/Ubuntu/Source
i.e.,
rosinstall /other/ros 
"http://packages.ros.org/cgi-bin/gen_rosinstall.py?rosdistro=electric&variant=desktop-full&overlay=no"
(today: Sept 1 2011)

More details about the apt installation: I did this first before trying to build 
from source.  I had linker errors when building my own nodes.  If I removed the 
NOBUILD file from laser_geometry, it would not build either.  I purged this 
installation before issuing the rosinstall command above.

Let me know if there's any other information you'd find helpful.  I'll also 
append the complete make output of which I only sent (what I considered to be) 
the interesting part.

/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack>VERBOSE=1 make
mkdir -p bin
Re-run cmake no build system arguments
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build
cd build && make
make[1]: Entering directory `/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build'
/usr/bin/cmake -H/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack 
-B/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build --check-build-system 
CMakeFiles/Makefile.cmake 0
/usr/bin/cmake -E cmake_progress_start 
/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build/CMakeFiles 
/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build/CMakeFiles/progress.marks
make -f CMakeFiles/Makefile2 all
make[2]: Entering directory `/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build'
make -f CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/build.make CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/depend
make[3]: Entering directory `/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build'
cd /other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build && /usr/bin/cmake -E cmake_depends "Unix 
Makefiles" /other/ros/ros/tools/rospack /other/ros/ros/tools/rospack 
/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build /other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build 
/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build/CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/DependInfo.cmake --color=
make[3]: Leaving directory `/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build'
make -f CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/build.make CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/build
make[3]: Entering directory `/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build'
Linking CXX shared library ../lib/librospack.so
/usr/bin/cmake -E cmake_link_script CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/link.txt --verbose=1 
 

/usr/bin/c++  -fPIC -O3 -DNDEBUG  -shared -Wl,-soname,librospack.so -o 
../lib/librospack.so CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/rospack.o 
CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/tinyxml-2.5.3/tinystr.o 
CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/tinyxml-2.5.3/tinyxml.o 
CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/tinyxml-2.5.3/tinyxmlparser.o 
CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/tinyxml-2.5.3/tinyxmlerror.o
/usr/bin/ld: /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.4.3/libstdc++.a(functexcept.o): 
relocation R_X86_64_32 against `std::bad_typeid::~bad_typeid()' can not be used 
when making a shared object; recompile with -fPIC
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.4.3/libstdc++.a: could not read symbols: Bad value
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[3]: *** [../lib/librospack.so] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory `/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build'
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build'
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/other/ros/ros/tools/rospack/build'
make: *** [all] Error 2

On 09/01/2011 02:24 PM, Ken Conley wrote:
> Hi Tom,
>
> Please include much more information about your system:
>
> http://www.ros.org/wiki/Support#Guidelines_for_asking_a_question_.28Please_read_before_posting.29
>
> e.g. your OS version, how you installed ROS (e.g. /opt/ros/ros doesn't
> make much sense to me, nor does the fact that you mention apt-get but
> then talk about building rospack).
>
> thanks,
> Ken
>
> On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 11:00 AM, Tom Temple<tom.temple@vecna.com>  wrote:
>> rosinstall fails with "rospack failed to build"
>>
>> Issuing VERBOSE=1 make against rospack directly it looks like it can't link to
>> tinyxml. (output below)
>>
>> I had libtinyxml-dev and libtinyxml-2.6.2 installed via apt-get.  I purged them
>> and tried rosinstall again and got the same error.
>>
>> Potential clue: I was able to install electric-desktop-full with apt-get
>> successfully, but I would get similar errors with rosmake, e.g., when making
>> laser_geometry I was getting an error related to linking to eigen.  This
>> suggests to me that I'm not installing the system dependencies in a ros friendly
>> way.
>>
>> I'm basically stumped and would really appreciate any suggestions for what to try.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> make output follows.
>>
>> wolverine@x-mansion:/opt/ros/ros/tools/rospack>VERBOSE=1 make
>> ...
>> Linking CXX shared library ../lib/librospack.so
>> /usr/bin/cmake -E cmake_link_script CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/link.txt --verbose=1
>>
>>
>> /usr/bin/c++  -fPIC -O3 -DNDEBUG  -shared -Wl,-soname,librospack.so -o
>> ../lib/librospack.so CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/rospack.o
>> CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/tinyxml-2.5.3/tinystr.o
>> CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/tinyxml-2.5.3/tinyxml.o
>> CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/tinyxml-2.5.3/tinyxmlparser.o
>> CMakeFiles/rospack.dir/tinyxml-2.5.3/tinyxmlerror.o
>> /usr/bin/ld: /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.4.3/libstdc++.a(functexcept.o):
>> relocation R_X86_64_32 against `std::bad_typeid::~bad_typeid()' can not be used
>> when making a shared object; recompile with -fPIC
>> /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.4.3/libstdc++.a: could not read symbols: Bad value
>> collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
>> ...
>>