He again does the typical thing and runs "./configure --prefix=/opt". The configure script runs for a while, then exits with an error which basically translates to "You have an autoconf version which is three weeks old; please upgrade", but this is displayed in the most cryptic manner possible.
This is simply incorrect. If you already have a configure script, then you don't need autoconf installed at all, let alone a particular version of it. autoconf is used for generating the configure script, not running it.