So I was trying to compile the seti@home code today. I ran across an issue that was rather confusing at first.

[kim@Khai seti_boinc]$ autoconf
configure.ac:16: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_DEFINE
      If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
      See the Autoconf documentation.
configure.ac:21: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
configure.ac:124: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
configure.ac:130: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_PROG_CC_C_O
configure.ac:147: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_LIBTOOL_DLOPEN
configure.ac:148: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_LIBTOOL_WIN32_DLL
configure.ac:149: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_PROG_LIBTOOL
configure.ac:375: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_CONDITIONAL
[kim@Khai seti_boinc]$ ./configure
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
./configure: line 1501: syntax error near unexpected token `dist-zip'
./configure: line 1501: `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(dist-zip)'
[kim@Khai seti_boinc]$ 

It turns out you need to run…

[kim@Khai seti_boinc]$ ./_autosetup 

…before running configure. Don’t actually run autoconf.

Kim