Upon further inspection it appears moving to 2.6.16 breaks the last release version even under Gentoo. However the CVS version builds fine.

I haven't got a Kubuntu box at home so will probably pop back to work tonight to see if it works, but I'm quite hopeful.

Quote:
The packaging system is terrible; packages are missing that people claim ought to be there, figuring out which packages to install for what I'd consider basic functions is a nightmare, etc.

I have to say I still prefer the ebuild/emerge system in Gentoo even if does take ages to compile everything from source. I was amazed that upon install all the things I've become used to having (make, gcc, etc.) were missing and required installation.