Maxima-5.9.0.9beta2 failed to install on Slackware Linux

I just tried to install (on Linux, Slackware 9.0) the beta2 version of Maxima 
from the source (tar.gz) file. It failed.

1) I installed gcl-2.6.4 (before I had gcl-2.4.4)
2) Unpacked maxima-5.9.0.09beta2.tar.gz and ran "configure". Did not
see anything suspicious.
3) The "make" stopped within few seconds with the following message

Making all in src
make[1]: Entering directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/src'
test -d binary-gcl || mkdir binary-gcl
test -d binary-gcl/numerical || mkdir binary-gcl/numerical
test -d binary-gcl/numerical/slatec || mkdir binary-gcl/numerical/slatec
gcl -batch -eval '(progn (load "../lisp-utils/defsystem.lisp") (funcall
(intern "OPERATE-ON-SYSTEM" :mk) "maxima" :compile :verbose t))' && \
gcl -batch -eval '(progn (load "../lisp-utils/defsystem.lisp") (funcall
(intern "OPERATE-ON-SYSTEM" :mk) "maxima" :load :verbose t) (when (fboundp
(quote si::sgc-on))(si::sgc-on t)) (si:save-system "binary-gcl/maxima"))'

Error: "COMMON-LISP" is not of type (LISP:OR LISP:SYMBOL LISP:STRING ...).
Fast links are on: do (si::use-fast-links nil) for debugging
Error signalled by LISP:USE-PACKAGE.
Broken at LISP:USE-PACKAGE.  Type :H for Help.
MAKE>>:h (I did!)
Then tried :b and got 
>> :b
Backtrace: funcall > system:top-level > EVAL
NIL
 Giving up!
 :q
 >(quit)

;;; Surprise!!! Make continued the work and here is the last of several screens
of the output:

make[1]: Nothing to be done for all'.
make[1]: Leaving directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/share'
Making all in demo
make[1]: Entering directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/demo'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for all'.
make[1]: Leaving directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/demo'
Making all in plotting
make[1]: Entering directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/plotting'
rm -f omplotdata && \
        cat header.tcl ../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Constants.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Macros.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Plotting.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Private.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Getopt.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Parse.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Textinsert.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Printops.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Push.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Plotconf.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Adams.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Rk.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Plotdf.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Plot2d.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Matrix.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/Plot3d.tcl
../interfaces/xmaxima/Tkmaxima/NPlot3d.tcl footer.tcl  > omplotdata && \
        chmod +x omplotdata
	make[1]: Leaving directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/plotting'
	make[1]: Entering directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2'
	make[1]: Nothing to be done for all-am'.
	make[1]: Leaving directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2'
	
;;;;Then I ran "make check".
First, it broke the same way as above, so I exited with :q then (quit); it
happened one more time, so I did the same. Finally, it returned to "make"
and produced

make[1]: Leaving directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/src'
Making check in lisp-utils
make[1]: Entering directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/lisp-utils'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for check'.
make[1]: Leaving directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/lisp-utils'
Making check in tests
make[1]: Entering directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/tests'
echo "Running test suite with gcl..."; \
/bin/sh ../maxima-local --lisp=gcl --batch-string="run_testsuite();" <
/dev/null
Running test suite with gcl...
/tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/src/maxima: line 124:
/tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/src/binary-gcl/maxima: No such file or
directory
/tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/src/maxima: line 124: exec:
/tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/src/binary-gcl/maxima: cannot execute: No
such file or directory
make[1]: *** [check-gcl] Error 126
make[1]: Leaving directory /tmp/Installs/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/tests'
make: *** [check-recursive] Error 1

BTW, my attempt last year to install maxima-5.9.0 on this same Linux
system from the tar.gz did not work either. At that time, I used the
rpm file which I converted to .tgz and installed using Slackware's
Installpkg. This time, since this is a beta version, I hope it might
be useful to try to understand the problem at hand.

Milan