The tests run when you install Tk, generate alot of harmless errors, but it will run Ok. So I would get the latest patched release Tk-804.027-501 from latest Tk , and install it manually. It's easy... make, make test (ignore errors), make install (as root). It sounds like the cpan program(which I don't use) will stop install if it gets errors from make test; so either do what I suggest above, or use the -force option to ignore the errors.