This is a bug somewhere between ExtUtils::MakeMaker, ExtUtils::Depends , ExtUtils::LibList ( ActivePerl::Config? ). Its a real mess. One way to fix this is to edit Makefile.PL

my(%makefilevars) = $gladexml->get_makefile_vars;
#use DDS; Dump\%makefilevars;
$makefilevars{LIBS}=":nosearch $makefilevars{LIBS}"; 
    
WriteMakefile(
    NAME          => 'Gtk2::GladeXML',
    VERSION_FROM  => 'GladeXML.pm',
    ABSTRACT_FROM => 'GladeXML.pm',
    PREREQ_PM     => \%pre_reqs,
    XSPROTOARG    => '-noprototypes',
    %makefilevars,
);
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You may also need this patch for ExtUtils-Depends-0.302\lib\ExtUtils\Depends.pm

        push @found_libs, $matching_file; #push @found_libs, ('-L' . $
+matching_dir, '-l' . $stem);
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This helped me overcome xs/PangoCairo undefined reference to `cairo_reference' when compile Pango-1.220 (needs latest pango.exports).