I've just gone through a similar problem compiling Math::Pari on solaris, it was looking for solaris C libraries even though I was using gcc, not solaris C. So after I fixed that, some core perl function names were being exported, like shift, so the make test wasn't passing.

So after I tracked down most of the problem, and wrote to Ilya about it, he writes back with the actual latest version in his own ftp directory at ftp://ftp.math.ohio-state.edu/pub/users/ilya/perl/modules where it was all fixed already. (Try v2.01008). I really don't know if that'll help or why the latest is not in CPAN, but good luck...