validate hangs in configure

Running ./validate on a freshly updated HEAD results in the script hanging during the configuration process.

Here's what's on the screen:

checking whether float word order is big endian... no
checking for nlist in -lelf... no
checking leading underscore in symbol names... no
checking whether ld understands -x... yes
checking whether ld is GNU ld... yes
checking for .subsections_via_symbols... no
checking for GNU non-executable stack support... no
checking for clock_gettime in -lrt... yes
checking for clock_gettime... yes
checking for timer_create... yes
checking for timer_settime... yes
checking for a working timer_create(CLOCK_REALTIME)... 

HEre's what 'top' has to say about what is running:

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND           
29457 nr        20   0  2000  480  368 R   88  0.0   9:18.12 conftest      

And strace of that process reveals an endless stream of these:

--- SIGVTALRM (Virtual timer expired) @ 0 (0) ---
sigreturn()                             = ? (mask now [])
--- SIGVTALRM (Virtual timer expired) @ 0 (0) ---
sigreturn()                             = ? (mask now [])
--- SIGVTALRM (Virtual timer expired) @ 0 (0) ---
sigreturn()                             = ? (mask now [])

The system is a 32-bit Debian testing/unstable, uname -a says

Linux homedog 2.6.24-1-686 #1 SMP Sat Apr 19 00:37:55 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

The CPU is a dual-core AMD FX-60:

processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 15
model           : 35
model name      : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 FX-60 Dual Core Processor
stepping        : 2

Trac metadata

Trac field	Value
Version	6.8.2
Type	Bug
TypeOfFailure	OtherFailure
Priority	normal
Resolution	Unresolved
Component	Build System
Test case
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