These tips apply to TLA 1.2.1 on PlayStation 2 running PS2 Linux 1.0.
Download the binary tarball -- it includes the diffutils 2.8.1 and patch 2.5.4 executables.
The diffutils and patch that come with the kit are too old, so an upgrade is needed.
Gnu diffutils 2.8.1 compiles without problems.
Gnu patch 2.5.4 with a patch is needed. The issue lies in the configure script (I think), is using the wrong version of fseek. patch will work if the macro file_seek is changed to fseek in the definition of Fseek in util.c -- I'll try to publish a patch for this brute force fix soon, and I hope to fix the real issue later.