I got past this error in debian by: 1. apt-get remove pkg-config automake autoconf 2. nano /etc/apt/sources.list to grab from sid instead of etch 3. apt-get update 4. apt-get install pkg-config automake autoconf libsigc++-2.0-dev 5. change sources.list back to the way it was before step 2 6. apt-get update