hi !.

[Piet van Oostrum]

>>>>> wware at world.std.com (Will Ware) (WW) writes:

WW> Ravi C Venkatesan (rcv_dac at giaspn01.vsnl.net.in) wrote:
>> Linux refuses to acknowledge the presence of the "configure" file, on
>> typing "./configure". It replies "No such file, directory........" 

WW> Sometimes the PATH variable is different for root than for a typical
WW> user. Try logging into your non-root user account, and build python
WW> that way. When it's built, log in as root and do "make install".

If you type ./configure the PATH is irrelevant.
Check The #! line: it probably refers to a non-existent shell. 
-- 
Piet van Oostrum <piet at cs.uu.nl>
URL: http://www.cs.uu.nl/~piet [PGP]
Private email: P.van.Oostrum at hccnet.nl