I tried building blender from source but unfortunately 14.04 comes with a lot of newer libraries that generate several conflicts and compiling errors, this also occurs if you try to build JimStar's source, so this is what I'm doing so far in order to make it work in ubuntu 14.04.
1. Install octaneblender's .sh script as usual
2. If you try to run OctaneBlender from a terminal (./OctaneBlender) in /usr/local/OctaneBlender the 1st error you'll get is with boost 1.51, so...
3. Download Boost 1.51 from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/f ... st/1.51.0/
4. Follow instructions to build it properly from here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1180792
5. don't do a "./bootstrap.sh --with-library=xxxxxx", simply run "./bootstrap.sh" and follow the instructions further on.
6. After having the required boost libraries installed, try to run octaneblender again from terminal. Next error is with libtiff, so...
7. 14.04 provides libtiff5 but not libtiff4 (up to saucy 13.10), follow the answer in this post to install the older version, answer is for the program "lightworks" but it works the same for octane: http://askubuntu.com/questions/449571/d ... rks-on-ubu
8. Try to run octaneblender, once more, from terminal. Next error is with a jpeg library (can't remember which one specifically right now), install it (the one reported in terminal as missing) using synaptic, just like a regular install, the version that comes with 14.04 works OK.I think it's "libjpeg62".(or open a terminal and run "sudo apt-get install libjpeg62").
9. Try to run OctaneBlender once more and... voila!

10. Now, this is just for me to be able to create a shortcut (launcher)on the desktop. In a terminal, do a "sudo cp -a /usr/local/OctaneBlender /home/youruser" to copy the entire folder with its attributes to your home folder.
11. Now in a terminal again, and in your home folder, do a "sudo chmod -R 777 OctaneBlender" to gain full access to the octaneblender folder.
12. Create a shortcut (new launcher) on your desktop with the blender executable located in your home folder.
13. This way when you run "OctaneServer &" in a terminal it will still launch the server from the original installation in /usr/local, but then you can simply launch blender from the shortcut recently created on your desktop.
That's it. Let me know if it worked for you or if you need any further help.
regards,
Alvaro