g77: Internal compiler error: program f771 got fatal signal

[jdaviestx]

Hello - I'm trying to compile LaPack (so that I can compile Atlas, so that I can ultimately compile FreeMat) on a Debian Etch x86 laptop. I'm consistently getting an internal compile error when trying to compile the source file cgtcon.f. I'm using g77 (GNU fortran 0.5.23). Since g77 depends on gcc version 2.8.1, which is pretty old, it's probably g77's problem... but I wonder if anybody else here has run across the same issue and found a resolution or a workaround at any point? TIA if you can offer any assistance.

Here's the output:

make[1]: Entering directory `/home/jdavies/devl/projects/math/lapack-3.1.1/SRC'
g77 -O -c cgtcon.f -o cgtcon.o
g77: Internal compiler error: program f771 got fatal signal 6
make[1]: *** [cgtcon.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/jdavies/devl/projects/math/lapack-3.1.1/SRC'
make: *** [lapacklib] Error 2

jdavies@dhcp-634-7:lapack-3.1.1$ g77 --version
GNU Fortran 0.5.23
Copyright (C) 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
For more version information on components of the GNU Fortran
...