where to get info on compiling on ubuntu

trying to get a working cam in ubuntu. Found a linux version gspca, made a download and read the readme file.

////////////////Supported kernel versions
=========================
The driver should compile and run successfully against most stable versions of
the official Linux 2.6.x kernel upto version 2.6.11 (from <http://www.kernel.org/>)

Compiling it
============
The driver module can be built without modifying your kernel source tree.

Before trying to compile the driver, ensure that you've configured your
kernel, and updated the dependencies: ????? |
'make [config|menuconfig|xconfig]; make dep'. |
                                                                                                                                                | info
Make sure, when compiling the driver, you use the same version of compiler as ????? |
was used to compile your kernel. Not doing so can create incompatible binaries. | needed
                                                                                                                                                |
as root ???? |
goes to gspcav1 directory and run: ???? |
./gspca_build ???? |

if all goes right the module is compiled and load in memory
if not, errors messages can be found in kgspca.err You should post this file to the maintainer
or in the sourceforge project bugs report. <http://sourceforge.net/projects/spca50x/>. ///////////

I do need a bit more precise info on this. I don't know how to compile, have no access to root and can't find gspca or *vl, I extracted the file to a new created file gspcavl in my directory, it's there but i always get "no such file or directory when I querry.
thanks
Jacques