I've just migrated to Linux Mint 17.3 MATE 64-bit from Kubuntu 15.10 in the last few hours (please don't ask why) and have attempted to install -gretl- from git. Installing R and TeX was successful, but not -gretl-. Here's the output:

clive@climate ~ $ git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/gretl/git gretl-git
Cloning into 'gretl-git'...
remote: Counting objects: 138600, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (31321/31321), done.
remote: Total 138600 (delta 111286), reused 133438 (delta 106823)
Receiving objects: 100% (138600/138600), 164.79 MiB | 578.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (111286/111286), done.
Checking connectivity... done.
clive@climate ~ $ cd gretl-git
clive@climate ~/gretl-git $ ./configure  --enable-quiet-build --enable-openmp --enable-build-doc
configuring for gretl 2015e-git (library version 15.0.0)
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking libintl.h usability... yes
checking libintl.h presence... yes
checking for libintl.h... yes
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for msgmerge... /usr/bin/msgmerge
checking build system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for shared library run path origin... done
checking for CFPreferencesCopyAppValue... no
checking for CFLocaleCopyCurrent... no
checking for GNU gettext in libc... yes
checking whether to use NLS... yes
checking where the gettext function comes from... libc
2015e-git
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking how to print strings... printf
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... (cached) /bin/sed
checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864
checking how to convert x86_64-pc-linux-gnu file names to x86_64-pc-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop
checking how to convert x86_64-pc-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop
checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for objdump... objdump
checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all
checking for dlltool... no
checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n
checking for ar... ar
checking for archiver @FILE support... @
checking for strip... strip
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for gawk... gawk
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for sysroot... no
checking for a working dd... /bin/dd
checking how to truncate binary pipes... /bin/dd bs=4096 count=1
checking for mt... mt
checking if mt is a manifest tool... no
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for objdir... .libs
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking for shl_load... no
checking for shl_load in -ldld... no
checking for dlopen... no
checking for dlopen in -ldl... yes
checking whether a program can dlopen itself... yes
checking whether a statically linked program can dlopen itself... no
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... no
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking for sin in -lm... yes
checking for fopen in -lc... yes
checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking for sys/wait.h that is POSIX.1 compatible... yes
checking for stdint.h... (cached) yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking dirent.h usability... yes
checking dirent.h presence... yes
checking for dirent.h... yes
checking fnmatch.h usability... yes
checking fnmatch.h presence... yes
checking for fnmatch.h... yes
checking fenv.h usability... yes
checking fenv.h presence... yes
checking for fenv.h... yes
checking byteswap.h usability... yes
checking byteswap.h presence... yes
checking for byteswap.h... yes
checking sys/times.h usability... yes
checking sys/times.h presence... yes
checking for sys/times.h... yes
checking libproc.h usability... no
checking libproc.h presence... no
checking for libproc.h... no
checking sys/proc_info.h usability... no
checking sys/proc_info.h presence... no
checking for sys/proc_info.h... no
checking for an ANSI C-conforming const... yes
checking for long double with more range or precision than double... yes
checking for vasprintf... yes
checking for posix_memalign... yes
checking size of int... 4
checking return type of signal handlers... void
checking whether byte ordering is bigendian... no
checking whether to use SSE2... yes
checking whether to use AVX... yes
checking whether to use OpenMP... yes
checking immintrin.h usability... yes
checking immintrin.h presence... yes
checking for immintrin.h... yes
checking for mpicc... no
checking netdb.h usability... yes
checking netdb.h presence... yes
checking for netdb.h... yes
checking sys/socket.h usability... yes
checking sys/socket.h presence... yes
checking for sys/socket.h... yes
checking for struct sockaddr_in... yes
checking for struct in_addr... yes
checking readline/readline.h usability... yes
checking readline/readline.h presence... yes
checking for readline/readline.h... yes
checking for tgetent in -lncurses... yes
checking for readline in -lreadline... yes
checking for rl_completion_matches in -lreadline... yes
checking for xdg-mime... yes
checking for mmap... yes
checking for gzopen in -lz... yes
checking for GMP - version >= 4.0.1... no
*** Could not run GNU MP test program, checking why...
*** The test program failed to compile or link. See the file config.log for the
*** exact error that occured. This usually means GNU MP was incorrectly installed
*** or that you have moved GNU MP since it was installed.
checking for MPFR - version >= 2.2.0... no
*** Could not run MPFR test program, checking why...
*** The test program failed to compile or link. See the file config.log for the
*** exact error that occured. This usually means MPFR was incorrectly installed
*** or that you have moved MPFR since it was installed.
checking for libgfortran... checking for _gfortran_abort in -lgfortran... yes
checking for LAPACK... yes
checking for dgejsv_ in -llapack... yes
checking for gnuplot... no
checking for gnuplot >= 4.6.0 with cairo support... no

* gretl needs gnuplot >= 4.6.0, with cairo support.
* The current version of gnuplot is available from www.gnuplot.info
clive@climate ~/gretl-git $ make -j3
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.

This ran beautifully (eventually) in Kubuntu 15, so why the choking on gnuplot? I've never before had to physically download it from online before firing up the commands to build, configure, make and install -gretl-, either via CVS or git.