Install TileMill from source with recent GDAL

install.sh

#!/bin/bash

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*mapnik*
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*developmentseed*
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*chris-lea*
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*ubuntugis*

# Add bleeding edge PPAs
echo 'yes' | sudo apt-add-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js
echo 'yes' | sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mapnik/v2.2.0
echo 'yes' | sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable
echo 'yes' | sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mapnik/boost

sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y upgrade

# Install package dependencies, some of these are redundant.
sudo apt-get install -y fluxbox vnc4server git-core libfreetype6-dev unzip build-essential subversion libboost-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-python-dev libboost-regex-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-thread-dev 
sudo apt-get install -y g++ cpp libicu-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-python-dev libboost-regex-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-thread-dev python-dev libxml2 libxml2-dev libfreetype6 libfreetype6-dev libjpeg-dev libltdl7 libltdl-dev libpng-dev libproj-dev libgeotiff-dev libtiff-dev libtiffxx0c2 libcairo2 libcairo2-dev python-cairo python-cairo-dev libcairomm-1.0-1 libcairomm-1.0-dev ttf-unifont ttf-dejavu ttf-dejavu-core ttf-dejavu-extra git build-essential python-nose clang libgdal1-dev python-gdal postgresql-9.1 postgresql-server-dev-9.1 postgresql-contrib-9.1 postgresql-9.1-postgis libsqlite3-dev
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs git build-essential libgtk2.0-dev  libwebkitgtk-dev protobuf-compiler libprotobuf-lite7 libprotobuf-dev libgdal1-dev

# Build proj4
wget http://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-datumgrid-1.5.zip
svn co http://svn.osgeo.org/metacrs/proj/trunk/proj proj-trunk # at the time pre-release 4.8.0
cd proj-trunk/nad
unzip -o ../../proj-datumgrid-1.5.zip
cd ../
./configure
make
make install

# Build mapnik
git clone http://github.com/mapnik/mapnik
cd mapnik
git checkout 2.3.x
./configure
make && sudo make install

# Setup Postgres
POSTGRES_VERSION=9.1 # you may need to change this depending on ubuntu version
POSTGIS_VERSION="1.5" # you may need to change this depending on ubuntu version
sudo apt-get install -y postgresql postgresql-server-dev-$POSTGRES_VERSION postgresql-$POSTGRES_VERSION-postgis
sudo su postgres
# we lost variables, reset them
POSTGRES_VERSION=9.1 # you may need to change this
POSTGIS_VERSION="1.5" # you may need to change this
createuser pgis # yes to super
createdb template_postgis
createlang -d template_postgis plpgsql # you may not need this
POSTGIS_PATH=`pg_config --sharedir`/contrib/postgis-$POSTGIS_VERSION
psql -d template_postgis -f $POSTGIS_PATH/postgis.sql
psql -d template_postgis -f $POSTGIS_PATH/spatial_ref_sys.sql
exit

# Build Tilemill
git clone https://github.com/mapbox/tilemill.git
cd tilemill
npm install