While installing Python 2.7.3 on my Ubuntu server the configure script hanged on the verification for pthread, I then proceded to alter the script to aways return true for pthread and it hanged again checking for PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM, which I also bypassed by altering the script and only then was I able to successfully install Python 2.7.3

Could you please run:
$ sh -x ./configure

to see what's going on.

It might also be interesting to have the output of
$ strace -f ./configure

Thanks.

Here is the output of sh -x ./configure

Posting the strac output

Your strace output looks strange :-)
Unless it's truncated, we see that the wait4() doesn't return when the
test pthread executable exits...

Could you try building this code :
"""
#include <pthread.h>

void* routine(void* p){return NULL;}

int main(){
  pthread_t p;
  if(pthread_create(&p,NULL,routine,NULL)!=0)
    return 1;
  (void)pthread_detach(p);
  return 0;
}
"""

(with gcc -o test test.c -lpthread)

And running it from the command line, to see your shell hangs (you
might also want to try 'strace -f sh -c "test"').

Yes, this code is hanging in my system. I'm posting the strace output.

If there's any other information that may be helpful I'll happily provide it.

> Yes, this code is hanging in my system. I'm posting the strace output.
>
> If there's any other information that may be helpful I'll happily provide it.

Well, in that case it's a bug in your pthread implementation:
returning from main() with detached threads should terminate the
process.

You should report this to your distribution bug tracker.

I'm closing as invalid.
If you decide to fill a bug report to your distribution (or directly to the libc in this case), it'd be interesting to post a link to the bug report here.

Thanks.