There are a few threads in the forum on this error message, but but it doesn't seem like there's a good solution available.

One said the error was already fixed, which I don't think it is because I've just downloaded the latest Ubuntu 6.06 LTS and have updated gcc and glibc (?) via Synaptic. And when I type ./configure I still get that error.

Another thread was talking about hacking some configuration files and other stuff that's beyond what I want to be doing as a new user.

Is there a working gui based fix for this seemingly obvious and well documented bug, or should I just give up until the next release, or until I'm comfortable following the editing instructions?

Did you try compiling in a root console window?

I tried it as root (using the sudo su command). Didn't work for me.

Where is the code located. A partition such as /tmp may be mounted without execution or library permissions. I've run into a couple cases where the ./configure and the "make" phase couldn't run as root. Also, the tarball may have uncompressed with a uid ownership that you don't have. In most cases, you should compile code as a normal user with the project directory being somewhere inside your HOME directory.

I agree with the above post. I've tried compiling kernel source on a vfat partition before and it gave me a similar error.

A USB vfat drive has to have the permissions assigned for the entire partition when the drive is mounted.
You can use the umask and dmask options to mask out the X permission bit for files. The owner and group of the contents of the drive also can't be changed on the contents, which a ./configure script or makefile may try to do.

The only time I compile outside my home directory is when I use rpmbuild to build a source rpm, or the kernel. Some people will set up a ~/$HOME/rpm/ directory tree and build their packages there. I have a /home/downloads/ directory where I download packages. Then after the "sudo make install" phase, I'll delete the projects directory and save the original tarball.

This error usually means you don't have the binutils package installed for good measure make sure to install the build-essential package as well.