Does it get easier the more you do it? Or is this just bad source deployments?

No, it's genuinely hard; it's scarcely easier setting up a new build machine here for the likes of RMM or Emplode. There just isn't an integrated system for getting hold of this stuff, not even at the bare-metal "configure; make" level, let alone the apt-get or RPM level with all the dependencies sorted out. These SDKs don't install to well-known locations, and there isn't even a well-known registry location where they can say they've been installed (so you have to spend ages adding all these directories to Visual Studio's search paths -- now that surely shouldn't be my job). It's all just pants.

Peter