Repeated failures to build later versions of Chicken from binaries v5.3.0

brainchild--- via Chicken-users <[email protected]> Fri, 27 Feb 2026 19:34:04 -0500
Newsgroups gmane.lisp.scheme.chicken
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hello.

I wish to experiment with the developmental pre-releases of Chicken 6, 
which seems to be generally possible only by building from source, 
which in turn requires some adequate working binary copy of Chicken.

I am using a system with Mint 22.2, which is based on Ubuntu Noble. I 
have installed the distribution package for Chicken, from Ubuntu 
repositories, which is version 5.3.0. This version is most recent I 
have so far been able to operate on my system.

For building more recent versions, I have cloned the development Git 
repository, and attempted building from a variety of tags, including 
`6.0.0pre3`, `6.0.0pre1`, `6.0.0-bootstrap`, and `5.4.0`. In all such 
cases, the build fails immediately, with generally quite similar 
messages.

I have even tried building Chicken 5.3.0 using Chicken 5.3.0, in order 
to use the resulting binary to attempt building Chicken 5.4.0. While 
building Chicken 5.3.0 using Chicken 5.3.0 has been successful, using 
the resulting binaries has been unsuccessful, the same as using the 
distribution packaged binaries, for building the later versions of 
Chicken.

Attempting to build Chicken 5.4.0 (using Chicken 5.3.0), the console 
output shows as follows:

```
/opt/chicken/5.3.0/bin/chicken library.scm -optimize-level 2 
-include-path . -include-path ./ -inline -ignore-repository -feature 
chicken-bootstrap -no-warnings -specialize -consult-types-file 
./types.db -explicit-use -no-trace -output-file library.c \
-no-module-registration \
-emit-import-library chicken.bitwise \,
-emit-import-library chicken.blob \
-emit-import-library chicken.fixnum \
-emit-import-library chicken.flonum \
-emit-import-library chicken.gc \
-emit-import-library chicken.keyword \
-emit-import-library chicken.platform \
-emit-import-library chicken.plist \
-emit-import-library chicken.process-context

Error: invalid argument type in specialization
(or fixnum char boolean eof bwp null undefined)
((pair (or fixnum char boolean eof bwp null undefined)) (##sys#setislot 
#(1) (quote 0) #(2)))
scheme#set-car!

 Call history:

 <syntax> (##core#begin (##core#require build-version))
 <syntax> (##core#require build-version)
 <syntax> (##core#callunit build-version) <--
make: *** [rules.make:819: library.c] Error 70
```

Attempting, with tag `6.0.0-bootstrap`:

```
/opt/chicken/5.3.0/bin/chicken library.scm -optimize-level 2 
-include-path . -include-path ./ -inline -ignore-repository -feature 
chicken-bootstrap -no-warnings -specialize -consult-types-file 
./types.db -explicit-use -no-trace -output-file library.c \
-no-module-registration \
-emit-import-library chicken.bitwise \
-emit-import-library chicken.bytevector \
-emit-import-library chicken.fixnum \
-emit-import-library chicken.flonum \
-emit-import-library chicken.gc \
-emit-import-library chicken.keyword \
-emit-import-library chicken.platform \
-emit-import-library chicken.plist \
-emit-import-library chicken.io \
-emit-import-library chicken.process-context

Error: (line 5179) invalid `#!' token: "bwp"
make: *** [rules.make:808: library.c] Error 70
```

The above complaint is effectively the same as with my trials for 
`6.0.0pre1` and `6.0.0pre3`.

The Chicken binary used for the above results identifies itself as 
follows:

```
CHICKEN
(c) 2008-2021, The CHICKEN Team
(c) 2000-2007, Felix L. Winkelmann
Version 5.3.0 ((HEAD detached at 5.3.0)) (rev e31bbee5)
linux-unix-gnu-x86-64 [ 64bit dload ptables ]

Enter `chicken -help' for information on how to use the compiler,
or try `csc' for a more convenient interface.

Run `csi' to start the interactive interpreter.
```

Please offer any available suggestions for making the build process 
successful in my environment. Thank you.