On Linux, TPT is compiled using some shared libraries. This means you need to have the libraries it expects on your computer already. It saves space in the download because it doesn't have to include standard libraries you can just install with your package manager, and also allows you to update these libraries separate from TPT.

On debian / ubuntu and using apt-get, run these commands:

sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian libfftw3-3 liblua5.1-0 libbz2-1.0

If on a 64-bit system, you also need to run this:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblua5.1.so.0 /usr/local/lib/liblua-5.1.so

Running 32-bit TPT on 64-bit Linux

While there is now an official 64 bit version of TPT, it has some issues, mostly with loading the lua library. It is possible to add 32 bit support to Debian / Ubuntu easily, and then you can install 32 bit packages.

Run these commands to add 32 bit support:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update

Next:

sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian:i386 libfftw3-3:i386 liblua5.1-0:i386 libbz2-1.0:i386

Now hopefully you should be able to run the 32 bit version of TPT.