----- Original Message ----- From: "Sisyphus" <sisyphus1@optusnet.com.au> . > (The build was done as a cross-compilation on linux, using official > sources, and in an officially approved way. To that extent it is, > therefore, an "official" build.) Not so - I was using the wrong version of binutils. At least, installing binutils-2.17.50-20060824-1.tar.gz fixes the problem and perl builds troublefree. The cross-compiler was built using that version of binutils - seems likely to me that's a good reason to have been using that version all along. Sorry for the noise - been struggling with this for the last coupla days, and I really thought I was going to need some help. Cheers, Rob