I recently set up ubuntu server on and old laptop that just wasn't powerful enough to run the latest ubuntu GUI.
On a whim, I tried compiling and running decker from the plain text console... And it worked!

Well, almost. In order to get it to recognize the keyboard and an external USB mouse, I had to run the following:

sudo usermod -a -G input $USER

... That command adds me (the $USER) to the "input" group, which allows SDL to read the keyboard and mouse events.
(I think I might have had to log in and out first.)

After that, decker worked just fine!

I haven't yet gotten it to recognize the built-in trackpad or touchscreen, but the mouse is a little more comfortable anyway. :)