cd MESHLAB_DIRECTORY/src/external
qmake -recursive external.pro
make
cd MESHLAB_DIRECTORY/src/
qmake -recursive meshlab_full.pro
make
run "meshlab" executable file in MESHLAB_DIRECTORY/src/distrib
On a fresh copy of Ubuntu, you might need to install some packages before compiling:
sudo apt-get install libgmp3-dev libqt4-dev g++
For extended compilation procedure on Linux, look at: CompilationDetais/COMPILATION.md
Also checkout https://github.com/starseeker/meshlab for a CMake based compilation method. Still in the works as of 6/22/16.
Note: I was unable to compile it on 32-bit i386. 64-bit AMD64 only.