you know, "This configure script is free software" doesn't sound like an error message to me
From what you posted i don't see where it actually fails
As for installing autotools with macports, be careful, they will be installed in /opt/local/bin. Apple ships by default autools in /usr/bin/. If you just open a terminal and run the commands, it's likely that those in /usr/bin/ are picked up and not the ones in /opt/local/bin/. This is why building with macports worked, probably : it told the computer to use those from /opt/local/bin/. You'd need to set your path properly to make it working from the terminal, or you can also just get the old versions of stuff our of the way with a few "sudo mv" commands probably. Of course if macports does it correctly for you then all is fine.
