Patch for "file" attached. Strangely, it uses "file" in its configure 
script, but this does not seem to be crucial:

    case `/usr/bin/file conftest.o` in
      *32-bit*)
        case $host in
          x86_64-*kfreebsd*-gnu)
            LD="${LD-ld} -m elf_i386_fbsd"
            ;;
          x86_64-*linux*)
            LD="${LD-ld} -m elf_i386"
            ;;
          ppc64-*linux*|powerpc64-*linux*)
            LD="${LD-ld} -m elf32ppclinux"
            ;;
          s390x-*linux*)
            LD="${LD-ld} -m elf_s390"
            ;;
          sparc64-*linux*)
            LD="${LD-ld} -m elf32_sparc"
            ;;
        esac
        ;;
      *64-bit*)
        case $host in
          x86_64-*kfreebsd*-gnu)

etc.

Andreas