More work today
after having more experience compiling/gunning now @ branches
Previous warnings apply but for who ever want to try the svn here is how I got compiling sucess
!) in a terminal make a empty directory and change into it
2) using " svn checkout
svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/vegastrike/code/trunk/data vs_svn/data" get the data filed
3) using "svn checkout
svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/vegastrike/code ... vegastrike vs_svn/vs_src" to get the source code
Not the above example I choose "vs_svn" and "vs_src" but you can use other names ( just remember what you choose
4"cd into source directory
5 mkdir "build" (again you can use other names) and enter in it
6) issue "ccmake .." ( debian pkg is cmake-curses-gui)
first time you will see an empty tree if you hit "c" for configure it will establish needed files and issue any warnings about missing dependancies
youe nee to hit "e" then you should see various options, satisfy what you missing from "c" command
NOTE I have been able to compile with the following missing/notfound messages
Boost_DIR Boost_DIR NOT-FOUND
GTK2_GTKGL_INCLUDE_DIR GTK2_GTKGL_INCLUDE_DIR-NOTFOUND
GTK2_GTKGL_LIBRARY GTK2_GTKGL_LIBRARY-NOTFOUND
OPENGL_xmesa_INCLUDE_DIR OPENGL_xmesa_INCLUDE_DIR-NOTFOUND
PYTHON_LIBRARY_DEBUG PYTHON_LIBRARY_DEBUG-NOTFOUND
7) now set the following you need to use "T" to get advanced options
DISABLE_FFMPEG on
DISABLE_OGRE on
USE_SYSTEM_BOOST on
VS_PYTHON_VERSION 2.7 (was 2, it does make a difference)

now you need to issue " c" command again the "e" to get back to options
chances are you need to repeat this until "g" appears when it does issue "g" if all is gooc ccmake will exit
9) Finally issue "make" if all is well you should suceed in conpiling vegasrtike
10) at this point you have two choices to " make install" or run what you have
11) if you have a "./vegastrike" directory in your home folder move it elsewhere or just delete it
12)back in your build dir copy "vegastrike, ./setup/vssetup into "data" folder
12 optionaly copy "./objconv/asteroidgen, ./objconv/mesh_tool, ./objconv/replace, ./objconv/trisort" into data dir as well
13) enter the data dir and first run "./vssetup" ( I suggest using simplest shader" make changes for best result try simplest settings first you can change them any time with vssetup
14) take a deep breath and issue "./vegastrike"
***WARNING***
please read previous post about system crash/hanging this applies to all three " 0.5.1rc1. py3, and svn
If anyone wants to set build type to debug to try to help troubles shoot ( I am starting to do so) run "gdb ./vegastrike" then"t" to run have at it