Hi Peter:

>     ACE VERSION: 5.4.2

Thanks for using the PRF...

> 
>     HOST MACHINE and OPERATING SYSTEM:
>     Sun-Fire-280R, Solaris 8
> 
>     TARGET MACHINE and OPERATING SYSTEM, if different from HOST:
>     COMPILER NAME AND VERSION (AND PATCHLEVEL):
> 
>     CONTENTS OF $ACE_ROOT/ace/config.h: #include "ace/config-sunos5.8.h"
> 
>     CONTENTS OF $ACE_ROOT/include/makeinclude/platform_macros.GNU (unless
>     this isn't used in this case, e.g., with Microsoft Visual C++):
>     include $(ACE_ROOT)/include/makeinclude/platform_sunos5_g++.GNU
>     
>     AREA/CLASS/EXAMPLE AFFECTED:
>     Source distribution appears to be mal-formed.
> 
>     DOES THE PROBLEM AFFECT:
>         COMPILATION?
>         LINKING?
>             On Unix systems, did you run make realclean first?
>         EXECUTION?
>         OTHER: cannot make; no $ACE_ROOT/Mafile

We are using GNUmakefile now.  GNU make looks for this file first.  When you 
invoke gmake below it does execute GNUmakefile.

> 
>     SYNOPSIS:
>     The distribution of "Latest Beta Kit" ACE+TAO.tar.gz (verion 5.4.2)
>     appears to be mal-formed.
> 
>     DESCRIPTION:
>     I downloaded "ACE+TAO.tar.gz" from deuce.doc.wustl.edu/Download.html on 12
>     August and untarred this file. The directory structure is different than
>     previous releases (5.4.0, 5.4.1) I have tried this week. In the directory
>     where I ran "gunzip -c ACE+TAO.tar.gz | tar xf -", I find the following:
> drwxr-xr-x  22 redi     users       1024 Aug 13 09:16 ACE_wrappers
> drwxr-xr-x   3 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:24 Collocated
> drwxr-xr-x   3 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:19 GenericFactory
> drwxr-xr-x   3 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:19 LoadBalancing
> drwxr-xr-x   4 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:25 Portable_Interceptors
> drwxr-xr-x   3 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:21 Sequence_Latency
> drwxr-xr-x   4 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:15 Server_Concurrency
> drwxr-xr-x   7 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:24 TAO
> drwxr-xr-x   3 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:15 examples
> drwxr-xr-x   4 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:19 orbsvcs
> drwxr-xr-x   6 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:21 performance-tests
> drwxr-xr-x   4 redi     users        512 Aug 13 09:24 tests
> 
>     In ACE_wrappers, I find:
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users     110647 Jul 22  1970 ACE-INSTALL
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users     125989 Jul  3  1970 ACE-INSTALL.html
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users       9187 Jul 22  1997 ACE-install.sh
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users     191340 Jul 22  1970 ACE.dsw
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users        269 Jun 29  1970 ACE.mwc
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users     359349 Jul 22  1970 ACE.sln
> drwxr-xr-x   8 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 ACEXML
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users     131824 Jul 22  1970 ACE_Static.dsw
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users     302288 Jul 22  1970 ACE_Static.sln
> drwxr-xr-x   7 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 ASNMP
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users        241 Aug 31  2000 AUTHORS
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users       5492 Nov 30  2003 COPYING
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users     417678 Jul 22  1970 ChangeLog
> drwxr-xr-x   2 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 ChangeLogs
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users      72081 Jul 15  2002 FAQ
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users       1449 Jul 22  1970 GNUmakefile
> drwxr-xr-x   4 redi     users       1536 Jul 22  1970 Kokyu
> drwxr-xr-x   5 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 MPC
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users       3041 Jan 12  1970 Makefile.am
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users       3240 Jul 22  1970 PROBLEM-REPORT-FORM
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users       8794 Jun 28  1970 README
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users       6960 Jul 22  1970 Release
> drwxr-xr-x  11 redi     users       1024 Aug 13 09:25 TAO
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users      92646 Jul 15  1970 THANKS
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users        506 Jul 22  1970 VERSION
> drwxr-xr-x   8 redi     users      31232 Jul 22  1970 ace
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users       1131 Feb  6  2000 ace-config.1.in
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users       4528 Nov 15  1999 ace-config.in
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users        159 Mar 21  1999 aceConf.sh.in
> drwxr-xr-x  11 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 apps
> drwxr-xr-x   6 redi     users       2560 Jul 22  1970 bin
> -rw-r--r--   1 redi     users     202960 Jul 18  1970 configure.ac
> drwxr-xr-x   2 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 docs
> drwxr-xr-x   2 redi     users       1536 Jul 22  1970 etc
> drwxr-xr-x  35 redi     users       1024 Jul 22  1970 examples
> drwxr-xr-x   3 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 include
> drwxr-xr-x   2 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 lib
> drwxr-xr-x   2 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 m4
> drwxr-xr-x   3 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 man
> drwxr-xr-x   5 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 netsvcs
> drwxr-xr-x  10 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 performance-tests
> drwxr-xr-x   7 redi     users      41472 Jul 22  1970 tests
> drwxr-xr-x   4 redi     users        512 Jul 22  1970 websvcs
> 
> Note that there is no Makefile. Also there is no "configure" script as
> suggested in ACE-INSTALL. And note the ancient dates on some files and
> directories.
> 
> When I run gmake, I don't get very far at all:
> GNUmakefile:20: /home/rt01/redi/software/ACE_WRAPPERS/include/makeinclude/macros.GNU: No such file or directory
> gmake: *** No rule to make target `/home/rt01/redi/software/ACE_WRAPPERS/include/makeinclude/macros.GNU'.  Stop.

Did you set ACE_ROOT correctly?  It looks like you might have set it as 
/home/rt01/redi/software/ACE_WRAPPERS, instead of /home/rt01/redi/software/ACE_wrappers.

Could you check that?

hth...
don