So, I tried the following configure: ./configure --with-lapack --with-blas --with-tcltk No use of ACML at all, but both lapack and blas. Configure proceeds without any errors. Make, same thing. Make check - same problem with stats. But, this time a .fail file got created in tests/Example. Bottom of the file has something which might resonate with someone out there: Error in La.svd(x, nu, nv) : BLAS/LAPACK routine 'DGESDD' gave error code -12 Calls: cancor -> svd -> La.svd -> .Call Execution halted So, from the admin guide, I find the following Since ACML contains a full LAPACK, if selected as the BLAS it can be used as the LAPACK /via/ --with-lapack. If you do use --with-lapack, be aware of potential problems with bugs in the LAPACK 3.0 sources (or in the posted corrections to those sources). In particular, bugs in |DGEEV| and |DGESDD| have resulted in error messages such as DGEBRD gave error code -10 So, seems that I'm seeing something analogous (or exactly like) to the 'bug' indicated above. So, suggestions on how to proceed? It seems that the problem lies with LAPACK. Indeed, system comes with LAPACK 3.xx (I have both 32- and 64-bit flavors, which differ a bit; 32-bit is 3.0.37 and 64-bit is 3.1.1), so not sure what to do.