This assumes a recent (Ubuntu >= 8.04) version.
Requirements:
sudo apt-get build-essential
sudo apt-get install python-dev
sudo apt-get install python-numpy python-numpy-dev python-scipy
sudo apt-get install liblapack-dev
sudo apt-get install python-sympy
Options:
sudo apt-get install ipython
sudo apt-get install python-matplotlib
sudo apt-get install mayavi2
For getting the code via version control:
sudo apt-get install git-core
Then follow the instructions at Checking out the latest version