I had same problem on WinME. Try to do following: find file ExtUtils/MM_Unix.pm (if you have installed ActiveState in default location it should be C:/Perl/lib/ExtUtils/MM_Unix.pm) and edit line 2223. Replace 

    -e "system qq[pl2bat.bat ].shift"

[download]
with 

    -e "system qq[pl2bat ].shift"

[download]
I have no idea why removing extenstion fixes this problem. I found this solution by accident. Probably it just a bug with system implementation in ActiveState Perl for Win32.

--
Ilya Martynov (http://martynov.org/)

In reply to Re: pl2bat hangs when installing modules with CPAN.pm by IlyaM
in thread pl2bat hangs when installing modules with CPAN.pm by Amoe

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