I was trying to install Perl from source and I broke something!
When I try to launch my control panel, it just quits. From the command line I get this:

Can't locate MDK/Common.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/libDrakX /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.1/i686-linux /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.1 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.1/i686-linux /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.1 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.1 .) at /usr/lib/libDrakX/common.pm line 3.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/libDrakX/common.pm line 3.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/sbin/drakconf line 26.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/sbin/drakconf line 26.

how do I fix it? I can't locate a directory 'MDK' with the file 'Common.pm' in my filesystem. Unsure how to proceed.
Anyone have any ideas?

I have the same problem!
I hope I can fix it.

Probably, the perl install has been written to the wrong folder for MDK. Always try bin files, already compiled for your distro, *.mdk.rpm.

I'd do an install from cd. I'm a newb when it comes to code.

First find which perl modules you had installed.

e.g. rpm -qa | grep perl

then reinstall them

e.g.

urpmi `rpm -qa | grep perl` --force

(Note: I don't remember if my --force arguments to urpmi is correct... it works in rpm though...)

This will restore the working perl.

If you need to upgrade make sure that you only use the updates available from the repositories for your Mandrake version.