finally after many headaches, including two Ubuntu reinstalls, I found out the easy way to get mono installed:

http://www.mono-project.com/Downloads

the detailed instructions are here:
http://www.mono-project.com/InstallerInstructions

the installer is just what you would be used to in Windows, simple "next, next, next, finish"

it even comes with Mono Develop, the whole thing, really to be used

at least I learned how to compile and install packages manually :)

next I'll be talking about my experiences with Mono Develop... I would like to install Chrome too

salu2