That's strange, configure is supposed to emit the error only if config.guess fails.
maeder@davinci -> ./config.guess ./config.guess: line 844: dummy-5901.c: Keine Berechtigung ./config.guess: line 1: dummy-5901.c: Keine Berechtigung ./config.guess: line 1105: dummy-5901.c: Keine Berechtigung ./config.guess: unable to guess system type
Keine Berechtigung == No authorization (according to babel fish). You wouldn't perchance be trying to configure in a tree you don't have write access to, would you?
This script, last modified 2001-07-09, has failed to recognize the operating system you are using. It is advised that you download the most up to date version of the config scripts from [...]
could this output be the source of my problem? (Meanwhile the owner of the ghc tree changed so I cannot really reproduce the situation.)
Aha, I think my hunch was correct :-) Cheers, Simon