Compiling and building Linux packages for multiple distributions / platforms

I highly recommend you look into the openSUSE Build Service. They've got all the various distros and architectures set up in Xen virtual servers, and they support a wide variety of packages, including RPM and DEB formats. It will save you loads of time and hassle setting up every one of those servers yourself, much less the time it'd take to get all of the includes and build-depends right.

http://en.opensuse.org/Build_Service

Edit: As a side note, if you have security concerns, you can download the code and set up an OBS on one of your own servers instead of using the public ones.

If you are intereseted in a single installer approach, check out http://autopackage.org and http://zero-install.sourceforge.net/