This is apparently a problem even running the latest Ubuntu and CPAN client. If you're an Ubuntu newbie, like me, it might take a while to find out how to make use of Anonymous Monk's excellent advice. Here is the magic line (that worked for me). (I searched the DB here before I decided to post it. But if this is already handled somewhere I'll take no umbrage should this post not pass muster, or otherwise requires some editing (including the removal of this and the containing parenthetical).) sudo apt-get install libpng-dev Thanks to Damian on Google forum (comp.lang.perl.tk) for the detail.