K, so perhaps you missed the announcement about the openssl bug affecting bitcoin.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=919373.0I can't use the ppa version, it's affected by the openssl issue and my p2pool won't function - verified with make check error. I need a statically linked version of the bitcoin core, not a dynamically linked version.
I really don't understand why a dev team would release something and not provide a simple README to describe where to put the files. Surely they must realize that non-developers and / or newbs like myself are going to be using the programs. So, instead of a 1 minute read through a README now we have a drawn-out and frustrating back & forth on forum which was preceded with a frustratingly pointless search on the net.
Thank you for your repsonse grue, your assistance is appreciated.