Step-by-step instructions to install fontmatrix from source on Debian and Ubuntu:

first we install the compilation metapackage by typing:
 sudo apt-get install build-essential

then we install the various build dependencies already known by the package database by typing:
  sudo apt-get build-dep fontmatrix

then we add a few extra dependencies added in the svn version of fontmatrix by typing:
  sudo apt-get install libqt4-sql-sqlite python-dev libicu-dev 

then we retrive the source code by typing:
  sudo apt-get install git 
  git clone https://github.com/fontmatrix/fontmatrix.git

then we build from source by typing:  
  cd fontmatrix
  mkdir  build
  cd build
  cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DWANT_PYTHONQT:bool=true -DWANT_ICU:bool=true -DWANT_HARFBUZZ:bool=true 
  make 


then we install the compiled version locally by typing:  
  sudo make install

this will move the files to /usr/local/


to uninstall all files written in the manifest you can type:
 sudo xargs rm < install_manifest.txt