Linux - installing octave 3.0.0 ./configure hung up

[alan00463]

I've successfully used octave 2.1.73 on my Debian-based PC
(SimplyMEPIS 7.0).    Last night I downloaded the tarball to evaluate
octave 3.0.0.

After unzipping the tarball, I did a ./configure and got this error
message:

checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name...
configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details.


So I reran ./configure as superuser and got the same message.
I am a C programmer, but this is my first use of gcc on this install
of linux.    So maybe I neglected to configure something properly with
the compiler.  Or unset permissions on file(s) or directory?

More info:

$gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

$clear; more config.log
This file contains any messages produced by compilers while
running configure, to aid debugging if configure makes a mistake.

It was created by configure, which was
generated by GNU Autoconf 2.61.  Invocation command line was

  $ ./configure

## --------- ##
## Platform. ##
## --------- ##

hostname = mepis1
uname -m = i686
uname -r = 2.6.22-1-mepis-smp
uname -s = Linux
uname -v = #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Feb 18 21:44:02 EST 2008

/usr/bin/uname -p = unknown
/bin/uname -X     = unknown

/bin/arch              = i686
/usr/bin/arch -k       = unknown
/usr/convex/getsysinfo = unknown
/usr/bin/hostinfo      = unknown
/bin/machine           = unknown
/usr/bin/oslevel       = unknown
/bin/universe          = unknown

PATH: /usr/local/sbin
PATH: /usr/local/bin
PATH: /usr/sbin
PATH: /usr/bin
PATH: /sbin
PATH: /bin
PATH: /usr/bin/X11

## ----------- ##
## Core tests. ##
## ----------- ##

configure:1937: checking build system type
configure:1955: result: i686-pc-linux-gnulibc1
configure:1977: checking host system type
configure:1992: result: i686-pc-linux-gnulibc1
configure:2103: checking for gcc
configure:2119: found /usr/bin/gcc
configure:2130: result: gcc
configure:2368: checking for C compiler version
configure:2375: gcc --version >&5
gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There
is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

configure:2378: $? = 0
configure:2385: gcc -v >&5
Using built-in specs.
Target: i486-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v
--enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++,treelang --prefi
x=/usr --enable-shared --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib
--without-included-gettext --enable
-threads=posix --enable-nls --program-suffix=-4.1
--enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-clocale=gnu --enab
le-libstdcxx-debug --enable-mpfr --with-tune=i686
--enable-checking=release i486-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)
configure:2388: $? = 0
configure:2395: gcc -V >&5
gcc: '-V' option must have argument
configure:2398: $? = 1
configure:2421: checking for C compiler default output file name
configure:2448: gcc    conftest.c  >&5
/usr/bin/ld: crt1.o: No such file: No such file or directory
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
configure:2451: $? = 1
configure:2489: result:
configure: failed program was:
| /* confdefs.h.  */
| #define PACKAGE_NAME ""
| #define PACKAGE_TARNAME ""
| #define PACKAGE_VERSION ""
| #define PACKAGE_STRING ""
| #define PACKAGE_BUGREPORT ""
| #define OCTAVE_SOURCE 1
| #define _GNU_SOURCE 1
| /* end confdefs.h.  */
|
| int
| main ()
| {
|
|   ;
|   return 0;
| }
configure:2496: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details.

## ---------------- ##
## Cache variables. ##
## ---------------- ##

ac_cv_build=i686-pc-linux-gnulibc1
ac_cv_env_BUILD_CC_set=
.
.
.

Any relevant ideas or comments to point me in the right direction
would be appreciated!

Alan