gtk+ 2.4.4 on Solaris 8?

[John Carr <jfc MIT EDU>]

I want to install some gtk apps (gimp, gphoto) on Solaris 8 without
installing the entire gnome desktop.

For the past week I've been trying to compile gtk+ 2.4.4.  After
chasing down the long list of dependencies I've run into a fatal
problem.  I don't have the render extension[*].  Without the xrender
client library I can't build Xft.  Without Xft I can't build pangoxft.
Without pangoxft I can't configure gtk+.

Any advice?

Is it feasible to transplant X-without-xrender code from an older
version of gtk?


[*]If I could install the xrender client library without the server
extension everything ought to just work, but slower.  So I found an
xrender client library tarball.  Extracted it.  autoconf fails.
Constructed a Makefile.  The source files depends on yet more files
being installed.  Since I've already chased several levels of
dependency to get here I have no reason to believe that tracking down
more files is the answer.