On Ubuntu, uname -a:
Linux subterranean 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 23:05:12 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux
“autoconf” cannot even make a working “configure” right out of the box.
THERE IS A BUG IN THE INSTALL ON UBUNTU.
I AM TRYING TO GET AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT THAT ANYONE ELSE IS HAVING THIS PROBLEM.
root@subterranean:/usr/local/asterisk/asterisk-1.4.14# autoconf
root@subterranean:/usr/local/asterisk/asterisk-1.4.14# ./configure
checking build system type… i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type… i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for gcc… gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name… a.out
checking whether the C compiler works… yes
checking whether we are cross compiling… no
checking for suffix of executables…
checking for suffix of object files… o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler… yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g… yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89… none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor… gcc -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e… /bin/grep
checking for egrep… /bin/grep -E
checking for AIX… no
checking for ANSI C header files… yes
checking for sys/types.h… yes
checking for sys/stat.h… yes
checking for stdlib.h… yes
checking for string.h… yes
checking for memory.h… yes
checking for strings.h… yes
checking for inttypes.h… yes
checking for stdint.h… yes
checking for unistd.h… yes
checking minix/config.h usability… no
checking minix/config.h presence… no
checking for minix/config.h… no
checking whether it is safe to define EXTENSIONS… yes
checking for uname… /bin/uname
checking for gcc… (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler… (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g… (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89… (cached) none needed
checking for g++… g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler… yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g… yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor… gcc -E
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor… g++ -E
./configure: line 5794: AST_PROG_LD: command not found
checking for gawk… gawk
checking for a BSD-compatible install… /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether ln -s works… yes
checking for ranlib… ranlib
./configure: line 6024: AST_CHECK_GNU_MAKE: command not found
checking for strip… /usr/bin/strip
checking for ar… /usr/bin/ar
checking for grep… (cached) /bin/grep
checking for find… /usr/bin/find
checking for compress… :
checking for basename… /usr/bin/basename
checking for id… /usr/bin/id
checking for dirname… /usr/bin/dirname
checking for sh… /bin/bash
checking for ln… /bin/ln
checking for dot… :
checking for wget… /usr/bin/wget
./configure: line 6695: ACX_PTHREAD: command not found
./configure: line 6720: syntax error near unexpected token ALSA,' ./configure: line 6720:AST_EXT_LIB_SETUP(ALSA, Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, asound)’
here is the context from configure.ac that produces the error:
AC_SUBST(DOWNLOAD)
ACX_PTHREAD
AC_LANG©
AC_ARG_ENABLE(dev-mode,
[ --enable-dev-mode Turn on developer mode],
[case “${enableval}” in
y|ye|yes) AST_DEVMODE=yes ;;
n|no) AST_DEVMODE=no ;;
*) AC_MSG_ERROR(bad value ${enableval} for --enable-dev-mode) ;;
esac])
AC_SUBST(AST_DEVMODE)
package option names should be in alphabetical order
by the --with option name, to make things easier for the users 
AST_EXT_LIB_SETUP([ALSA], [Advanced Linux Sound Architecture], [asound])