CPAN problem on new Suse 9.0 install??

Just installed a Suse 9.0 box, still very much a newbie and I'm trying to
install some modules from CPAN.

I'm getting the following:

relay:/ # perl -MCPAN -e shell
Terminal does not support AddHistory.

cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.7601)
ReadLine support available (try 'install Bundle::CPAN')

cpan> install MIME::Base64
CPAN: Storable loaded ok
Going to read /root/.cpan/Metadata
Database was generated on Thu, 22 Jan 2004 16:00:21 GMT
Running install for module MIME::Base64
Running make for G/GA/GAAS/MIME-Base64-3.00.tar.gz
CPAN: Digest::MD5 loaded ok
Checksum for /root/.cpan/sources/authors/id/G/GA/GAAS/MIME-Base64-
3.00.tar.gz ok
Scanning cache /root/.cpan/build for sizes
MIME-Base64-3.00/
MIME-Base64-3.00/t/
MIME-Base64-3.00/t/warn.t
MIME-Base64-3.00/t/bad-sv.t
MIME-Base64-3.00/t/unicode.t
MIME-Base64-3.00/t/quoted-print.t
MIME-Base64-3.00/t/base64.t
MIME-Base64-3.00/README
MIME-Base64-3.00/QuotedPrint.pm
MIME-Base64-3.00/MANIFEST
MIME-Base64-3.00/decode-qp
MIME-Base64-3.00/encode-base64
MIME-Base64-3.00/encode-qp
MIME-Base64-3.00/Base64.pm
MIME-Base64-3.00/Changes
MIME-Base64-3.00/Makefile.PL
MIME-Base64-3.00/decode-base64
MIME-Base64-3.00/Base64.xs
Removing previously used /root/.cpan/build/MIME-Base64-3.00

CPAN.pm: Going to build G/GA/GAAS/MIME-Base64-3.00.tar.gz

Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Writing Makefile for MIME::Base64
-- NOT OK
Running make test
Can't test without successful make
Running make install
make had returned bad status, install seems impossible

Not a very meaningful message, and I've not found much on google about how
to switch on cnay sort of debugging with CPAN.

Thinking it through I thought I'd see what happens if I went into
/root/.cpan/build/MIME-Base64-3.00 and did a make and a make test and it
all looks to have worked..

I hope this isn't a no-brainer question but I don't know what's going on
and wondered if someone could shed some light?

regards
Paul
--
paul <at> spamcop.net