CPAN Is Broken...or Something

I'm trying to install some basic cpan modules to use ASSP with. On my other server, this all went without a hitch, but on this one (Centos), it it a pain. First off, every time I start up cpan, it's asking me to do some sort of reconfiguration..every time (running as root)...

Secondly, after I'm in the cpan shell, and I issue this:

install Compress::Zlib

I get a whole slew of errors, and ultimately, nothing is done...Here is the last portion of what is shown on the screen

Quote:

Global symbol "$gzerrno" requires explicit package name at t/14gzopen.t line 481.
Global symbol "$gzerrno" requires explicit package name at t/14gzopen.t line 499.
Global symbol "$gzerrno" requires explicit package name at t/14gzopen.t line 502.
Bareword "Compress::Zlib::zlib_version" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at t/14gzopen.t line 38.
Bareword "ZLIB_VERSION" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at t/14gzopen.t line 38.
Bareword "Z_FINISH" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at t/14gzopen.t line 98.
Bareword "Z_STREAM_END" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at t/14gzopen.t line 110.
Bareword "Z_STREAM_END" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at t/14gzopen.t line 111.
Bareword "Z_STREAM_ERROR" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at t/14gzopen.t line 446.
Bareword "Z_STREAM_ERROR" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at t/14gzopen.t line 461.
Execution of t/14gzopen.t aborted due to compilation errors.
# Looks like you planned 217 tests but only ran 2.
# Looks like your test died just after 2.
t/14gzopen......dubious
Test returned status 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
DIED. FAILED tests 1-217
Failed 217/217 tests, 0.00% okay
t/99pod.........skipped
all skipped: Test:od 1.00 required for testing POD
Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail List of Failed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
t/000prereq.t 4 1024 6 4 1 3-4 6
t/01version.t 255 65280 2 3 1-2
t/03zlib-v1.t 255 65280 394 785 1-394
t/05examples.t 255 65280 ?? ?? ??
t/06gzsetp.t 255 65280 ?? ?? ??
t/08encoding.t 255 65280 16 31 1-16
t/14gzopen.t 255 65280 217 432 1-217
1 test skipped.
Failed 7/8 test scripts. 633/635 subtests failed.
Files=8, Tests=635, 1 wallclock secs ( 0.72 cusr + 0.27 csys = 0.99 CPU)
Failed 7/8 test programs. 633/635 subtests failed.
make: *** [test_dynamic] Error 255
PMQS/Compress-Zlib-2.004.tar.gz
/usr/bin/make test -- NOT OK
Running make install
make test had returned bad status, won't install without force
Failed during this command:
PMQS/Compress-Raw-Zlib-2.004.tar.gz : make NO
PMQS/IO-Compress-Zlib-2.004.tar.gz : make_test NO
PMQS/Compress-Zlib-2.004.tar.gz : make_test NO