Before trying to build this, you should also checkout yaadfat into same directory you checked out libco like this: $ cd ~/devel/platon $ cvs co yaadfat $ cvs co libco $ cd libco $ make -f Makefile.cvs You need this software to build cvs source (in addition to normally required): - autoconf 2.50 (tested with 2.57) - automake 1.5 (tested with 1.7) - libtool 1.4 (tested with 1.4.2a) - gettext 0.11 (tested with 0.11.5) It may or may not work with different versions. Autoconf 2.5 is required at least anyway. To create configure script in clean cvs checkout, do: shell$ make -f Makefile.cvs This will call all needed programs in almost certainly correct order ;).