Please use either `cabal install` or `runhaskell Setup configure --user` to install or configure the package. This is because `runhaskell Setup` defaults to use global package database, and thus may give spurious error messages, when the dependencies are installed in user's package database. For a fresh GHC install on Ubuntu, you may first need to `apt-get install zlib1g-dev` to get zlib header files. Troubleshooting: 1. `runhaskell Setup configure` tells that dependencies are missing, even though I have them installed! Use `runhaskell Setup configure --user` or see Cabal FAQ: http://www.haskell.org/cabal/FAQ.html#runghc-setup-complains-of-missing-packages 2. double-conversion dependency breaks the linking process with error: This is known GHC bug that may appear in FreeBSD and Windows: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/5289 Workaround is to switch off the flag that makes printing faster: Append `-f-have-double-conversion` to `cabal install` or `runhaskell Setup configure` arguments. 3. [Windows] Cannot get `unix` dependency. Please switch off using bytestring-mmap package by appending flag `-f-have-mmap` to `cabal install` or `runhaskell Setup configure` arguments. TODO: try to change *.cabal file so it is done automatically. 4.