I got the files onto a debian server, made sure they contain the right data and hit 'make'
Makefile:8: *** missing separator (did you mean TAB instead of 8 spaces?). Stop.
Doh!!!!
I too am not that well versed in compiling stuff.
FYI;
‘missing separator (did you mean TAB instead of 8 spaces?). Stop.’
This means that make could not understand much of anything about the makefile line it just read. GNU make looks for various separators (:, =, recipe prefix characters, etc.) to indicate what kind of line it’s parsing. This message means it couldn’t find a valid one.
One of the most common reasons for this message is that you (or perhaps your oh-so-helpful editor, as is the case with many MS-Windows editors) have attempted to indent your recipe lines with spaces instead of a tab character. In this case, make will use the second form of the error above. Remember that every line in the recipe must begin with a tab character (unless you set .RECIPEPREFIX; see Special Variables). Eight spaces do not count. See Rule Syntax.