Why -> configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables

[D. Michael McIntyre]

On Sunday 30 December 2007, homayoon taheri wrote:

> when I run ./configure to compile any source packages in kubuntu
> 7.10(amd64) compiling will abort with the message "configure: error: C
> compiler cannot create executables". why?

The typical answer is that you don't actually have a C compiler installed.

What happens if you try to run

  $ gcc

?
-- 
D. Michael McIntyre