git-1.6.6 is assumed (at the time of writing) pretty simple: $ sudo aptitude install build-essential $ sudo aptitude install zlib1g-dev $ mkdir ~/Downloads/git $ cd !$ $ wget http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.6.6.tar.gz $ tar xvfz git-1.6.6.tar.gz $ cd git-1.6.6/ $ ./configure $ make $ sudo make install $ git upd: Ubuntu Lucid howto