make install fails on root-squashed source tree

"make install" fails as root failes when the source directory
tree is nsf exported root-squashed (as it should be).  Errors
below.

Why in the world does the install process have to be able to
write in the source tree?

This is in source checked out from svn today.
This error did not occure in the cfengine-3.0.1 distro.

The "automake -1.10" error seems to be a red herring, as automake-1.10
is installed in /usr/local.

Example make error:

# make install
 cd . && /bin/sh /users/singer/src/linux/cfengine-3.0.1-svn/trunk/missing --run automake-1.10 --gnu 
autom4te: cannot open autom4te.cache/requests: Permission denied
automake-1.10: autoconf failed with exit status: 1
WARNING: `automake-1.10' is needed, and you do not seem to have it handy on your
         system.  You might have modified some files without having the
         proper tools for further handling them.  Check the `README' file,
         it often tells you about the needed prerequirements for installing
         this package.  You may also peek at any GNU archive site, in case
         some other package would contain this missing `automake-1.10' program.
make: *** [Makefile.in] Error 1