diff --git a/chapter08/coreutils.xml b/chapter08/coreutils.xml
index 70eb1e318..dfe6d0da5 100644
--- a/chapter08/coreutils.xml
+++ b/chapter08/coreutils.xml
@@ -62,22 +62,28 @@ FORCE_UNSAFE_CONFIGURE=1 ./configure \
             --enable-no-install-program=kill,uptime</userinput></screen>
 
     <variablelist>
-      <title>The meaning of the configure options:</title>
+      <title>The meaning of the commands and configure options:</title>
 
       <varlistentry>
-        <term><command>autoreconf</command></term>
+        <term><command>autoreconf -fv</command></term>
         <listitem>
           <para>The patch for internationalization has modified the
           build system, so the configuration files must
-          be regenerated.</para>
+          be regenerated.  Normally we would use the
+          <parameter>-i</parameter> option to update the standard
+          auxilary files, but for this package it does not work because
+          <filename>configure.ac</filename> specified an old gettext
+          version.</para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
       <varlistentry>
-        <term><command>automake</command></term>
+        <term><command>automake -af</command></term>
         <listitem>
-          <para>Work around a problem with an older versions of autotools.
-          </para>
+	  <para>The automake auxilary files were not updated by
+	  <command>autoreconf</command> due to the missing
+	  <parameter>-i</parameter> option.  This command updates them
+	  to prevent a build failure.</para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
@@ -143,12 +149,6 @@ FORCE_UNSAFE_CONFIGURE=1 ./configure \
 
 <screen><userinput remap="test">groupdel dummy</userinput></screen>
 
-    <para>
-       Two tests, <filename>tests/cp/preserve-mode.sh</filename> and
-       <filename>tests/mv/acl.sh</filename>, are known to
-       fail in the chroot environment, but pass in a complete system.
-    </para>
-
     <para>Install the package:</para>
 
 <screen><userinput remap="install">make install</userinput></screen>
diff --git a/chapter08/python.xml b/chapter08/python.xml
index 75f18945f..ebda61181 100644
--- a/chapter08/python.xml
+++ b/chapter08/python.xml
@@ -162,21 +162,21 @@ EOF
 
 <screen><userinput remap="install">install -v -dm755 /usr/share/doc/python-&python-version;/html
 
-tar --no-same-owner \
-    -xvf ../python-&python-version;-docs-html.tar.bz2
-cp -R --no-preserve=mode python-&python-version;-docs-html/* \
-    /usr/share/doc/python-&python-version;/html</userinput></screen>
+tar --strip-components=1  \
+    --no-same-owner       \
+    --no-same-permissions \
+    -C /usr/share/doc/python-&python-version;/html \
+    -xvf ../python-&python-version;-docs-html.tar.bz2</userinput></screen>
 
     <variablelist>
       <title>The meaning of the documentation install commands:</title>
 
     <varlistentry>
-      <term><option>--no-same-owner</option> (tar) and <option>--no-preserve=mode</option> (cp)</term>
+      <term><option>--no-same-owner</option> and <option>--no-same-permissions</option></term>
       <listitem>
         <para>Ensure the installed files have the correct ownership and
         permissions.  Without these options, <application>tar</application>
-        will install the package files with the upstream creator's values
-        and files would have restrictive permissions.
+        will install the package files with the upstream creator's values.
         </para>
       </listitem>
     </varlistentry>