How do I install OCE on Ubuntu?

Let's change OCE to Open Cascade.

Here is the procedure which finally worked for me in Ubuntu (12.04);

First, get yourself the build tools from Ubuntu! Specifically, the following should get everything you need:

$ sudo apt-get libtool autoconf automake gfortran

(gfortran is GNU FORTRAN). If you got any of those tools from their home web sites, get rid of them before installing the Ubuntu versions, or much confusion may result! (The beauty of a distro is that they take care of making sure that this automake works with this autoconf works with...)

Now your procedure should look like

$ tar xf foo-x.y.z.tar.gz
$ cd foo-x.y.z
$ ./build_configure
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo checkinstall make install

During the MAKE function on the last line, you will probably be told the value you've entered can't be accepted. This is a version number. Enter any number from 0-9, you'll get a chance to change it later.
You will eventually be shown a list of table entries that include things like the program name and the version number. Follow the directions to use the correct values. If you don't know what any of the entries are, leave them alone.

My build didn't successfully do the the INSTALL command on the last line. No matter, I installed it using the Gdebi Installer. "gdebi" is available in Ubuntu through Synaptic Package manager, or through a terminal using, "sudo apt-get install gdebi".

What's happening here is that the build_config script is preparing the kit to the point where you could roll it back up into a new tar ball for distribution, with directions to the user to do the ./configure && make && make install with the kit. The whole autoconf/automake facility makes it possible to provide packages that will (ultimately) build and compile on systems as diverse as Windows, Linux and other Unix variants, and some proprietary operating systems.