Ah, I think we might be talking about different things.
I didn’t try to compile Guncho itself: I was just trying to write a game to run on it, (a “realm”) hosted on the Guncho facility.
I’ve just been using the desktop version of Inform 7, and intend to convert it to 5T18 once I’ve got the standalone (solo) version working.
I use Linux too (Linux Mint.) I’ve found the desktop version of the I7 IDE’s pretty good: it includes a compiler and a means of playing the WIP right in it, you see.
One of the regulars on here (@interactivefiction) has made a .deb that works around a problematic libray dependency: you can download it here. Here’s the thread discussing it.