Installing PAR::Packer on Windows, dmake error 255

Question

I am trying to create a binary of a perl script for Windows, and I cannot afford commercial applications such as perl2exe and Active Perl Dev Kit (I am aware there are trial versions).

Because of this I have installed strawberry perl on a Windows XP SP3 32bit Virtual Machine to try and compile my source file; something that I was easily able to do on Linux.

Strawberry perl installs fine however when I try to install the PAR::Packer module from cpan, I get the following errors:

dmake: Error code 129, while makeing 'ppresources.coff'
dmake.EXE: Error code 255, while making 'subdirs'
  RSCHUPP/PAR-Packer-1.013.tar.gz
  C:\strawberry\c\bin\dmake.EXE -- NOT OK

I have googled extensively, but as of yet haven't been able to find a solution, any help is greatly appreciated, thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Adding answer to aggregate comments above for future searchers:

Here's what works for me building on Windows systems.

1) Use ActiveState Perl 5.x (I've used 5.10 through 5.14).

2) Use PPM to install all packages you can from ActiveState PPM repository.

3) Fall back to CPAN to actually install PAR::Packer and any other requirements not in the ActiveState PPM repository.