every time i try to install a per mod using CPAN i get an error that looks like:
Writing Makefile for <thing in trying to install>
-- NOT OK
Running make test
Can't test without successful make
Running make install
make had returned bad status, install seems impossible

im actually trying to setup a cajun (car audio jukebox for unix) which needs a bunch of these (BDI and DBD::mysql).

almost forgot. im using FC2 on this one

This looks to me like you don't have permissions to access the build directory. Are you running CPAN as root? If not, you may need to reconfigure it with a different build directory, say under /var/tmp/

im actually logged in as root when im doing it. how would i change the dir?

Something like (in CPAN):
The first line tells you what the current setting is (leave out “build_dir” for all settings). The second like sets the directory (which you should first create).

still didnt work. heres a bit more of what it says
cpan> o conf build_dir /var/tmp/cpan_build/
build_dir /var/tmp/cpan_build/

cpan> install DBI
CPAN: Storable loaded ok
Going to read /root/.cpan/Metadata
Database was generated on Sun, 22 Aug 2004 22:05:37 GMT
Running install for module DBI
Running make for T/TI/TIMB/DBI-1.43.tar.gz
CPAN: Digest::MD5 loaded ok
Checksum for /root/.cpan/sources/authors/id/T/TI/TIMB/DBI-1.43.tar.gz ok
Scanning cache /var/tmp/cpan_build/ for sizes
DBI-1.43/
DBI-1.43/t/
DBI-1.43/t/06attrs.t
DBI-1.43/t/80proxy.t
DBI-1.43/t/41prof_dump.t
DBI-1.43/t/09trace.t
DBI-1.43/t/30subclass.t
DBI-1.43/t/pod.t
DBI-1.43/t/03handle.t
...
...
DBI-1.43/test.pl
DBI-1.43/dbipport.h
DBI-1.43/README
DBI-1.43/Makefile.PL

CPAN.pm: Going to build T/TI/TIMB/DBI-1.43.tar.gz


*** You are using a perl configured with threading enabled.
*** You should be aware that using multiple threads is
*** not recommended for production environments.

*** Note:
The optional PlRPC-modules (RPC::PlServer etc) are not installed.
If you want to use the DBD::Proxy driver and DBI::ProxyServer
modules, then you'll need to install the RPC::PlServer, RPC::PlClient,
Storable and Net:aemon modules. The CPAN Bundle:BI may help you.
You can install them any time after installing the DBI.
You do *not* need these modules for typical DBI usage.

Optional modules are available from any CPAN mirror, in particular
http://search.cpan.org/
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module
http://www.perl.org/CPAN/modules/by-module
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/per...ules/by-module

Creating DBI::PurePerl test variant: t/zvpp_01basics.t
Creating DBI::PurePerl test variant: t/zvpp_02dbidrv.t
Creating DBI::PurePerl test variant: t/zvpp_03handle.t
Creating DBI::PurePerl test variant: t/zvpp_04mods.t
...
...
...
Creating DBI::PurePerl test variant: t/zvpp_80proxy.t
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good

I see you're using perl 5.008003 on i386-linux-thread-multi, okay.
Remember to actually *read* the README file!
Use 'make' to build the software (dmake or nmake on Windows).
Then 'make test' to execute self tests.
Then 'make install' to install the DBI and then delete this working
directory before unpacking and building any DBD::* drivers.

Writing Makefile for DBI
-- NOT OK
Running make test
Can't test without successful make
Running make install
make had returned bad status, install seems impossible

so it still doesn't work. any suggestions?
is it possible do install these manually? im assuminig it is.
thanks for the super quick responses!

I suspect that the problem here is most likely to be caused by changes to CPAN between Perl version 5.0 and the latest version (5.8.5).
http://www.perl.org

I'd suggest that you probably want to upgrade Perl, not least because of several security issues that have been patched.

You can, of course, download the sources and install them yourself. You'll probably find the file at /root/.cpan/sources/authors/id/T/TI/TIMB/DBI-1.43.tar.gz where CPAN put it; if not, go to http://cpan.perl.org and search for it. There's usually a README file that tells you what to do; if not, try Hope that helps,

— Robert J. Lee

Just following up. uninstalled then updated perl. works fine now. was still having problems with Ogg::Vorbis::Header so i used Ogg::Vorbis::Header::Pureperl. thanks for the help.