CPAN - error with installation

Jeri has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi, I'm trying to set up cpan on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. In the terminal I wrote

sudo perl -MCPAN -e shell
make install
install Bundle::CPAN

I've done an update and upgrade and have also installed perl. When I try to download XML::Parser in cpan it complains

make: *** [subdirs] Error 2
  TODDR/XML-Parser-2.41.tar.gz
  /usr/bin/make -- NOT OK
Running make test
  Can't test without successful make
Running make install
  Make had returned bad status, install seems impossible
Failed during this command:
 TODDR/XML-Parser-2.41.tar.gz                 : make NO
[download]

This happens with any module I try to download. I noticed it was discussed in this 2010 thread http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=866275 with no luck. Any help solving the cause of this error would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Comment on CPAN - error with installation Download Code

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Re: CPAN - error with installation by marto (Cardinal) on May 17, 2012 at 17:01 UTC
Are you installing this with the Perl that ships with Ubuntu? If so be warned that Ubuntu uses Perl to perform system tasks, this installation is best left to the operating system. I suggest installing a modern version of Perl to another location, this can be done quite easily from source (see the Installation section of the README) or via perlbrew. If you aren't using the system Perl could you please post more of the installation attempt, we only see the failure, if it's going to be a lot please use readmore tags (`<readmore>lots of text</readmore>`).	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: CPAN - error with installation by Jeri (Scribe) on May 17, 2012 at 17:46 UTC
I just re-installed Ubuntu again and did sudo perl -MCPAN -e shell install Bundle::CPAN and it worked! No errors. I'm not sure what was going on before, but I really didn't want to re-install Ubuntu. And to answer your question, I was just using the perl that was shipped with Ubuntu. Thanks for responding.	[reply]
Re^3: CPAN - error with installation by marto (Cardinal) on May 17, 2012 at 17:52 UTC
Well, I'm glad it worked for whatever reason. I do discourage installing modules in the system perl, this could come back to bite you later on.	[reply]
Re^4: CPAN - error with installation by Anonymous Monk on Jan 27, 2013 at 11:24 UTC
Re^5: CPAN - error with installation by marto (Cardinal) on Jan 27, 2013 at 11:30 UTC
Re: CPAN - error with installation by tweetiepooh (Hermit) on May 17, 2012 at 16:56 UTC
Look at the error message, why is /usr/bin/make not OK? Does it work at the command line?	[reply]
Re: CPAN - error with installation by Jeri (Scribe) on May 17, 2012 at 16:28 UTC
I'm not trying to post erroneous questions. I would just like to have cpan set up on my computer to download perl modules. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.	[reply]