Dear Ian, Thanks for your response. Here is the output of the bad tests: http://pastebin.com/iepNQPf0 Since first posting to the haskell-users list, I have tried several other builds with similar results. This one simply unpacks the unknown-linux bindist of GHC (as well as building the versions of gmp and libffi it needs) and builds from the GHC source against that. Here is what's passed to configure: ./configure --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib${LIBDIRSUFFIX} --mandir=/usr/man --docdir=/usr/doc/$pkgname-$pkgver --with-ghc=$startdir/src/stage_0_build/usr/bin/ghc For what it's worth, here is the whole thing - but I doubt it's relevant: http://people.salixos.org/mimosa/packages/ghc/7.4.2/SLKBUILD.new Unless there is an absolute necessity, I'd prefer to build it without any other Haskell bits and pieces. But if this isn't possible, what *is* needed? I have already established that the Haskell Platform alone isn't sufficient to make these errors go away. The problem with the build script for Haskell Platform turns out to be an error in the script, nothing to do with needing to be root to execute the recache command. You are also right that Haskell Platform makes no difference to the way the documentation is built. I saw dblatex on the page about build prerequisites, but I can't find it for Slackware/Salix. In any case, the html documentation is good enough. My main concern is getting a robust, usable build of GHC itself. So far I'm only a Haskell user in the sense that my WM is XMonad, and this build of GHC certainly hasn't caused any trouble in that department. Tim