To your first problem:
how do you start the svn-version of C::B?
I have different version on my laptop and it works without any problems.
If you build with "./configure --prefix=...", go to your prefix-directory (I guess it's "/usr/local") and from there type "bin/codeblocks" (or whatever the relative path to the executable is. That should work.
For the second problem: you can use different profiles. Start C::B with commandline-option "-p" followed by a space and the profile name and a new conf-file is created in "~/.codeblocks" additionally to the "default.conf",what's used without a named profile.
EDIT:by the way: this forum is for C::B development only.
I think your question belongs to the
Help-forum.