Version 3.8.0 - Successful 2019-07-17

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install g++ git cmake autoconf automake libsdl1.2-dev libboost-all-dev libboost-dev libboost-thread-dev zlib1g-dev libpng-dev libjpeg8-dev libz-dev libsdl-dev 
git clone -b release/v3.8.0 https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray.git 
cd povray/unix/ 
./prebuild.sh 
cd ..

[Static build:]

./configure \
COMPILED_BY="MichaelafSjaelland@gmail.com"   \
NON_REDISTRIBUTABLE_BUILD=yes   \
CLAGS="-O3 -Wall" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -Wall" \
LIBS="-lboost_system -lboost_thread -ldl -lmvec -lm"   \
--prefix="$HOME/WORK/SOURCES/povray-3.8/build_povray_O3"   \
--disable-io-restrictions   \
--enable-static   \
--with-boost=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/   \
--with-boost-thread=boost_thread   \
--without-x   \
--without-libtiff   \
--without-openexr 

make check -j4
make install

Successful 2019-04-29

sudo apt-install g++
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install git cmake autoconf automake libsdl1.2-dev libboost-all-dev libboost-dev libboost-thread-dev zlib1g-dev libpng-dev libjpeg8-dev 
git clone -b 3.7-stable https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray.git 
cd povray/unix/ 
./prebuild.sh 
cd ..

[Static build: worked on cepheus, cetus & argo]

./configure \
COMPILED_BY="MichaelafSjaelland@gmail.com"   \
NON_REDISTRIBUTABLE_BUILD=yes   \
CLAGS="-O3 -Wall" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -Wall" \
LIBS="-lboost_system -lboost_thread -ldl -lmvec -lm"   \
--prefix="$HOME/WORK/SOURCES/povray-3.7/build_povray_O3"   \
--disable-io-restrictions   \
--enable-static   \
--with-boost=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/   \
--with-boost-thread=boost_thread   \
--without-x   \
--without-tiff --without-libtiff   \
--without-openexr 

make check -j4
make install

            or, if errors encountered:

./configure COMPILED_BY="Michael " --disable-optimiz-arch
make
sudo make install

Run benchmark

Don't hold your breath.

cd ~/povray/scenes/advanced/benchmark
povray benchmark.ini