is not found on my system (and locate did not reveal it). I have several of these libgmp.so, but apparently not the right one
locate libgmp.so
It's a side effect of the distro that these packages are built on. They have a libgmp.so.3 that configure finds/uses, but I think most distros no longer install that. Often times they do have a suitable libgmp and a symlink can fix the issue.
What I do when I run into this is something roughly like this:
1. Run ldd on the executable that is complaining (alternatively, you can use readelf -d), to find out what shared object is not being loaded correctly and get a hint of the expected path. If you can't figure out the path, then assume it will be the same path used by other .so files.
2. Find a close match, such as the ones you found with locate.
3. (Optional) install the necessary package because no close match is there.