Install Mapnik Library Prerequisites

Install Boost Libraries from Packages

Is everything up to date on your system?

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

Install prerequisite tools

sudo aptitude install libltdl3-dev libpng12-dev libtiff4-dev libicu-dev
sudo aptitude install python-cairo-dev python-nose
sudo aptitude install libfreetype6-dev libcairo2-dev libcairomm-1.0-dev
sudo aptitude install libgeotiff-dev libtiff4 libtiff4-dev libtiffxx0c2
sudo aptitude install libsigc++-dev libsigc++0c2 libsigc-2.0-2 libsigx-2.0-dev
sudo aptitude install libgdal1-dev python-gdal imagemagick

Install Boost development libraries

sudo aptitude install libboost-python1.40-dev libboost1.40-dev libboost-filesystem1.40-dev
sudo aptitude install libboost-iostreams1.40-dev libboost-regex1.40-dev libboost-thread1.40-dev
sudo aptitude install libboost-program-options1.40-dev