I get the following error message when I compile a software:

./configure: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied

After some investigation, I get the answer. That because I'm running the command on a filesystem which does not allow the execution of code.

For security reason, most distributions make movable usb disk partitions mounted with "noexec,nosuid,nodev". Eg:

/dev/sdb5 on /media/data type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

Solutions

1. Re-mount the partition with proper options:

   # mount -o remount,rw /media/data
   

2. Move to another partition that has exec rights to do the compilation.