make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/package/base-files'
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/package/busybox'
rm -f /home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/build_dir/target-mips_r2_uClibc-0.9.30.1/busybox-1.15.3/.configured*
grep 'CONFIG_BUSYBOX_' /home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/.config | sed -e "s,\\(# \)\\?CONFIG_BUSYBOX_\\(.*\\),\\1\\2,g" > /home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/build_dir/target-mips_r2_uClibc-0.9.30.1/busybox-1.15.3/.config
yes '' | make -C /home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/build_dir/target-mips_r2_uClibc-0.9.30.1/busybox-1.15.3 CC="mips-openwrt-linux-uclibc-gcc" CROSS_COMPILE="mips-openwrt-linux-uclibc-" KBUILD_HAVE_NLS=no ARCH="mips" oldconfig
make[4]: Entering directory `/home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/build_dir/target-mips_r2_uClibc-0.9.30.1/busybox-1.15.3'
Makefile:431: *** mixed implicit and normal rules.  Stop.
make[4]: Leaving directory `/home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/build_dir/target-mips_r2_uClibc-0.9.30.1/busybox-1.15.3'
make[3]: *** [/home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/build_dir/target-mips_r2_uClibc-0.9.30.1/busybox-1.15.3/.configured__34aa562badedc746ed7d4a8afd4e3be0] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/package/busybox'
make[2]: *** [package/busybox/compile] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire'
make[1]: *** [/home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire/staging_dir/target-mips_r2_uClibc-0.9.30.1/stamp/.package_compile] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/mohnkhan/backfire/backfire'
make: *** [world] Error 2
[mohnkhan@localhost backfire]$ svn up
At revision 23969.

doing nothing fancy here.. got  a new box with fedora 14 on it ..
the trunk compiles fine, but backfire does not...
am I doing anything wrong here ?

no, Fedora updated "make" which in turn updated its parser which is now stricter and thus breaks a bunch of software packages. In the short term you need to downgrade make, in the long term we will add patches to affected packages to deal with it.

Thanks a lot Jow for your able guidance.
will get it on going on another box.
regards
mohnkhan

just for the record
----------------------------------------------
this version worked
----------------------------------------------
[mohnkhan@localhost backfire]$ make --v
GNU Make 3.81
Copyright (C) 2006  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This program built for i386-redhat-linux-gnu

------------------------------------------------------------

this one did not.. v3.82
[mohnkhan@localhost backfire]$ make --version
GNU Make 3.82
Built for i386-redhat-linux-gnu
Copyright (C) 2010  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

hope this helps anybody else who is facing the same problem

thank you, helped me on gentoo by downgrading temporarly to build openwrt. i hope fixes will be included into next release