The code to detect the method to detect interfaces fails if the build host does not have any interfaces. This seems to be the normal situation on a Linux vserver (not even a loopback device). A patch has been submitted to the Debian bug tracking system that seems to solve this problem, but you may want to give it broader portability testing. --- --- source/lib/interfaces.c 2005-07-28 15:19:45.000000000 +0200 +++ interfaces.c.naive-fix 2006-08-20 23:58:41.000000000 +0200 @@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ int i; printf("got %d interfaces:\n", total); - if (total <= 0) exit(1); + if (total < 0) exit(1); for (i=0;i<total;i++) { printf("%-10s ", ifaces[i].name); --- This should work because a failure in the interface detection method comes back as -1, while 0 should be a valid result.