I'm running Debian, specifically 'woody', and I'm trying to compile using Python 2.3.3. I'll try my luck with the Python guys, as well, but if someone else knows what's going on - I'd be most appreciative! :)
Which linux kernel, glibc, and filesystem do you have? I'm not a linux expert, but I know some old linux kernels, c libraries, and ext2 don't have large file support. Perhaps an linux kernel upgrade will solve it. You could also tried to create a file greater than 2 Gb from the unix shell: dd if=/dev/zero of=big_file_test bs=1024 count=2600000 If everything goes well, you will see a 2.5Gb file called "big_file_test". On the contrary, you will see an error, which means that your debian really doesn't support large files. Indeed you will need to upgrade. Regards, Josef