I hacked CPAN::Meta a little here:

sub load_file {
  my ($class, $file, $options) = @_;
  print "My file is: $file\n";  #jhall
  $options->{lazy_validation} = 1 unless exists $options->{lazy_valida
+tion};

  croak "load_file() requires a valid, readable filename for $file"
    unless -r $file;
[download]

On the good box it does:

jhall@jimwin8:~/.cpan/build/Module-Build-XSUtil-0.06-d9Wlfd$ perlgcc2 Build.PL
My file is: META.json
Created MYMETA.yml and MYMETA.json
Creating new 'Build' script for 'Module-Build-XSUtil' version '0.06'
My file is: META.yml
My file is: MYMETA.json
My file is: META.json
Merging cpanfile prereqs to MYMETA.yml
Merging cpanfile prereqs to MYMETA.json

On the bad box:

oracle@localhost Module-Build-XSUtil-0.06-si9LjM$ perl Build.PL
Deleting _build
Creating custom builder _build/lib/MyBuilder.pm in _build/lib
Checking whether your kit is complete...
Looks good

Checking prerequisites...
Looks good

Deleting Build
Removed previous script 'Build'

Creating new 'Build' script for 'Module-Build-XSUtil' version '0.06'
My file is: MYMETA.json
load_file() requires a valid, readable filename for MYMETA.json at Build.PL line 56

I guess I need to sort out where is MYMETA.* created.... it must be buried in the new/create method... just difficult to sort out.

I think the problem is in Parse::CPAN::Meta, seems to be a lot of changes here:

--- Meta.pm    2014-03-04 15:22:05.000000000 -0500
+++ /u01/oracle/Meta.pm    2014-04-10 11:24:46.069085636 -0400
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ use 5.008001;
 use strict;
 package Parse::CPAN::Meta;
 # ABSTRACT: Parse META.yml and META.json CPAN metadata files
-our $VERSION = '1.4414'; # VERSION
+our $VERSION = '1.4413'; # VERSION
 
 use Exporter;
 use Carp 'croak';
@@ -13,30 +13,15 @@ our @EXPORT_OK = qw/Load LoadFile/;
 sub load_file {
   my ($class, $filename) = @_;
 
-  my $meta = _slurp($filename);
-
   if ($filename =~ /\.ya?ml$/) {
-    return $class->load_yaml_string($meta);
-  }
-  elsif ($filename =~ /\.json$/) {
-    return $class->load_json_string($meta);
-  }
-  else {
-    $class->load_string($meta); # try to detect yaml/json
+    return $class->load_yaml_string(_slurp($filename));
   }
-}
 
-sub load_string {
-  my ($class, $string) = @_;
-  if ( $string =~ /^---/ ) { # looks like YAML
-    return $class->load_yaml_string($string);
-  }
-  elsif ( $string =~ /^\s*\{/ ) { # looks like JSON
-    return $class->load_json_string($string);
-  }
-  else { # maybe doc-marker-free YAML
-    return $class->load_yaml_string($string);
+  if ($filename =~ /\.json$/) {
+    return $class->load_json_string(_slurp($filename));
   }
+
+  croak("file type cannot be determined by filename");
 }
 
 sub load_yaml_string {
@@ -136,7 +121,7 @@ Parse::CPAN::Meta - Parse META.yml and M
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-version 1.4414
+version 1.4413
 
 =head1 SYNOPSIS
 
@@ -216,13 +201,6 @@ This method deserializes the given strin
 If the source was UTF-8 encoded, the string must be decoded before ca
+lling
 C<load_json_string>.
 
-=head2 load_string
-
-  my $metadata_structure = Parse::CPAN::Meta->load_string($some_strin
+g);
-
-If you don't know whether a string contains YAML or JSON data, this m
+ethod
-will use some heuristics and guess.  If it can't tell, it assumes YAM
+L.
-
 =head2 yaml_backend
 
   my $backend = Parse::CPAN::Meta->yaml_backend;
[download]

Will see if I can trouble shoot further. Any suggestions appreciated.

Ok - I sorted it out. It was two things:

1. Module::Build::XSUtil will not build correctly with the Module::Build bundled with perl 5.10. the 5.10 module is at $VERSION = '0.35'; the latest which worked is at v0.4205
2. When I installed the latest Module::Build this particular module installed in a new directory off my CPAN basedir: /u01/oracle/perl/lib/perl5. I updated my PERL5LIB and then I could find a new version of the module. Otherwise I got the error message:

   cpan20> test Module::Build::XSUtil
   Running test for module 'Module::Build::XSUtil'
   Running Build for H/HI/HIDEAKIO/Module-Build-XSUtil-0.06.tar.gz
     Has already been unwrapped into directory /u01/oracle/.cpan/build/Module-Build-XSUtil-0.06-36QCGd
     '/usr/bin/perl Build.PL --install_base /u01/oracle/perl' returned status 65280, won't make
   Running Build test
     Make had some problems, won't test
   

Module::Build required newer versions of Module::Metadata and Perl::OSType.

At some point I did install a newer build of Module::Build on the Solaris 11 with perl 5.12 and it had $VERSION = '0.4205'; of Module::Build. Would it be reasonable to ask the maintainer of Module::Build::XSUtil to put in his code a 'require' statement for a newer version of Module::Build? I think that would sort things out.