The Host Sys. Reqs. page does already list various programs needed, but I don't think that's really enough - it is entirely possible to be using a host system that meets all these requirements and is still unable to compile anything. I know the page does say to make sure you have the "development" packages, but I think there should be some actual test to make sure it's all really there. Perhaps, in addition to the list of required software, there should also be a test similar to the toolchain sanity test in the book - something like "echo 'main(){}' > dummy.c && gcc dummy.c" to verify that the host system actually has a usable toolchain.