clean install of 18.04 (in a VM)

updated to current
$sudo apt-get update
$sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

installed the build prerequisites from https://www.ntpsec.org/white-papers/stratum-1-microserver-howto
$sudo apt-get install bc build-essential git libncurses-dev pps-tools python-dev scons 

E: Unable to locate package pps-tools
E: Unable to locate package scons

need to add the universe repo for pps-tools & scons

$sudo add-apt-repository universe
$sudo apt-get update

installed the build prerequisites
$sudo apt-get install bc build-essential git libncurses-dev pps-tools python-dev scons 

Note, selecting 'libncurses5-dev' instead of 'libncurses-dev'
bc is already the newest version (1.07.1-2).
git is already the newest version (1:2.17.1-1ubuntu0.4).

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  binutils binutils-common binutils-x86-64-linux-gnu build-essential cpp cpp-7 dpkg-dev fakeroot g++ g++-7 gcc gcc-7 gcc-7-base libalgorithm-diff-perl
  libalgorithm-diff-xs-perl libalgorithm-merge-perl libasan4 libatomic1 libbinutils libc-dev-bin libc6-dev libcc1-0 libcilkrts5 libdpkg-perl libexpat1-dev
  libfakeroot libfile-fcntllock-perl libgcc-7-dev libgomp1 libisl19 libitm1 liblsan0 libmpc3 libmpx2 libncurses5-dev libpython-dev libpython-stdlib libpython2.7
  libpython2.7-dev libpython2.7-minimal libpython2.7-stdlib libquadmath0 libstdc++-7-dev libtinfo-dev libtsan0 libubsan0 linux-libc-dev make manpages-dev
  pps-tools python python-dev python-minimal python2.7 python2.7-dev python2.7-minimal scons


grabbed the source
$git clone git://git.savannah.nongnu.org/gpsd.git

$cd gpsd

$scons

selected parts of the output

Altered configuration variables:
dbus_export = False (default True): enable DBUS export support
bluez = False (default True): BlueZ support for Bluetooth devices
qt = False (default True): build QT bindings
WARNING: Python module serial (pyserial) not found.
    ubxtool and zerk will not be installed
WARNING: Python module pycairo not found.
    xgps and xgpsspeed will not be installed
WARNING: Python module pygobject not found.
    xgps and xgpsspeed will not be installed
Part of the website build requires asciidoc, not installed.
scons: done reading SConscript files.
scons: Building targets ...


Creating 'gps-3.19-dev.egg-info'
substituter(["gpsd.php"], ["gpsd.php.in"])
chmod -w gpsd.php
substituter(["libgps.pc"], ["libgps.pc.in"])
chmod -w libgps.pc
substituter(["gpsd.rules"], ["gpsd.rules.in"])
chmod -w gpsd.rules
scons: done building targets.


$scons check

selected parts of the output

Regression test successful: no errors in 126 tests (0 not found).
Elapsed time: 209.44
scons: done building targets.