CMake doesn't find Boost libraries

I would try setting BOOST_ROOT inside your CMakeLists.txt file. I know that CMake 2.8.6 will find Boost 1.47.0 when you set the Boost_ADDITIONAL_VERSIONS variable since it works for me on Windows when I have BOOST_ROOT set.

Here is what I have in one project:

    set( BOOST_COMPONENTS_NEEDED serialization )

    # The following verifyies that BOOST_ROOT is set properly.
    if(NOT BOOST_ROOT AND NOT $ENV{BOOST_ROOT} STREQUAL "")
        FILE( TO_CMAKE_PATH $ENV{BOOST_ROOT} BOOST_ROOT )
        if( NOT EXISTS ${BOOST_ROOT} )
            MESSAGE( STATUS  ${BOOST_ROOT} " does not exist. Checking if BOOST_ROOT was a quoted string.." )
            STRING( REPLACE "\"" "" BOOST_ROOT ${BOOST_ROOT} )
            if( EXISTS ${BOOST_ROOT} )
                MESSAGE( STATUS "After removing the quotes " ${BOOST_ROOT} " was now found by CMake" )
            endif( EXISTS ${BOOST_ROOT})
        endif( NOT EXISTS ${BOOST_ROOT} )

    # Save the BOOST_ROOT in the cache
        if( NOT EXISTS ${BOOST_ROOT} )
            MESSAGE( WARNING ${BOOST_ROOT} " does not exist." )
        else(NOT EXISTS ${BOOST_ROOT})
            SET (BOOST_ROOT ${BOOST_ROOT} CACHE STRING "Set the value of BOOST_ROOT to point to the root folder of your boost install." FORCE)
            #SET (BOOST_INCLUDEDIR ${BOOST_ROOT}/Include)
            #SET (BOOST_LIBRARYDIR ${BOOST_ROOT}/lib)
        endif( NOT EXISTS ${BOOST_ROOT} )

    endif(NOT BOOST_ROOT AND NOT $ENV{BOOST_ROOT} STREQUAL "")

    if( WIN32 AND NOT BOOST_ROOT )
        MESSAGE( WARNING "Please set the BOOST_ROOT environment variable." )
    endif( WIN32 AND NOT BOOST_ROOT )

    set(Boost_ADDITIONAL_VERSIONS "1.47" "1.47.0")
    set(Boost_DEBUG ON)
    set(Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS       OFF)
    set(Boost_USE_MULTITHREADED      ON)
    set(Boost_USE_STATIC_RUNTIME    OFF)
    FIND_PACKAGE(Boost 1.47.0 COMPONENTS ${BOOST_COMPONENTS_NEEDED})
    if(Boost_FOUND)
        MESSAGE( STATUS "Setting up boost." )
        include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS})
        if(Boost_DEBUG)
            MESSAGE( STATUS "BOOST Libraries " ${Boost_LIBRARIES} )
            FOREACH(BOOST_COMPONENT ${BOOST_COMPONENTS_NEEDED})
                STRING( TOUPPER ${BOOST_COMPONENT} BOOST_COMPONENT_UPCASE )
                MESSAGE( STATUS "Boost " ${BOOST_COMPONENT} ": " ${Boost_${BOOST_COMPONENT_UPCASE}_LIBRARY} )
                MESSAGE( STATUS "Boost " ${BOOST_COMPONENT} " Debug: " ${Boost_${BOOST_COMPONENT_UPCASE}_LIBRARY_DEBUG} )
                MESSAGE( STATUS "Boost " ${BOOST_COMPONENT} " Release: " ${Boost_${BOOST_COMPONENT_UPCASE}_LIBRARY_RELEASE} )
            ENDFOREACH(BOOST_COMPONENT)
        endif(Boost_DEBUG)
    endif(Boost_FOUND)

Well, I solved the problem, but I'm not fully satisfied with my solution.

In my opinion the problem was that BJam creates a too complex folder structure. Now I just copied the library files from "boost_1_47_0\bin.v2\libs\serialization\build\msvc-9.0\debug\link-static\threading-multi" to "boost_1_47_0\lib".

I have to do this by hand, but I'm not using that many Boost libraries, so this step is OK in my opinion. I will document my solution aside the CMake script, so other users should get along with that.