OK. Finally! I managed to get my DIRTSAND build environment working again on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server. It appears that upgrading to 12.04 breaks too many things (including gnome).
I downloaded the ISO for Ubuntu 12.04 and did a clean install of EVERYTHING. Except for a couple of missteps on my part, it was a very straightforward build. Installing gnome gets you the Ubuntu Desktop (warning: Update Manger is NOT installed by default). DIRTSAND is running fine (so far). I was somewhat curious as to why I have an ResEng hardhat (the one with the light) in my Relto closet... not really complaining ).
So far the only error message I received that I wasn't expecting was [Vault] Warning: Could not find SDL descriptor for AvatarCustomization. I will see if I can locate that particular file somewhere.
Moving on...