This package is known to behave badly when you have changed its default optimization flags (including the -march and -mcpu options). Binutils is best left alone. Therefore, if you have defined any environment variables that override default optimizations, such as CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, we recommend unsetting or modifying them when building binutils. You have been warned. It is recommended by the Binutils installation documentation to build Binutils outside of the source directory. Create the build directory: mkdir ../binutils-build && cd ../binutils-build Next, prepare Binutils to be compiled: ../binutils-&binutils-version;/configure --prefix=/usr --enable-shared Continue with compiling the package: make tooldir=/usr Normally, the tooldir (the directory where the executables end up) is set to $(exec_prefix)/$(target_alias) which expands into, for example, /usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu. Since we only build for our own system, we don't need this target specific directory in /usr. That setup would be used if the system was used to cross-compile (for example compiling a package on the Intel machine that generates code that can be executed on Apple PowerPC machines). Install the package: make tooldir=/usr install Install the info pages: make tooldir=/usr install-info Some packages require the libiberty header in order to build. To honor those packages, install the file: cp ../binutils-&binutils-version;/include/libiberty.h /usr/include