Michael, apparently "hesco" running perl 5.8.8 on a linux box had the same problem with ExtUtils-MakeMaker-6.52, see CPAN testers report 4102883.
http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/M/MS/MSCHWERN/ExtUtils-MakeMaker-6.53_02.tar.gz Maybe this tester can provide more information on the exact circumstances of the failure. At least we can see a complete perl -V output in their report. Greetings, -Martin
