When I build GnuTLS 1.6.3 the zlib support fails:
(snippet from config.log)
configure:13308: checking whether to include zlib compression support
configure:13321: result: yes
configure:13733: checking for libz
configure:13762: arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-gcc -march=armv5te -mtune=xscale -o conftest -isystem/work/Projects/HMMS/tmp/tmp/staging/arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/include -fexpensive-optimizations -fomit-frame-pointer -frename-registers -Os -D_REENTRANT -D_THREAD_SAFE -Wno-pointer-sign -pipe -isystem/work/Projects/HMMS/tmp/tmp/staging/arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/include -L/work/Projects/HMMS/tmp/tmp/staging/arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/lib -Wl,-rpath-link,/work/Projects/HMMS/tmp/tmp/staging/arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/lib -Wl,-O1 conftest.c /usr/lib/libz.so >&5
/lib64/libz.so: file not recognized: File format not recognized
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
configure:13768: $? = 1
<snip>
configure:13787: result: no
configure:13814: WARNING: ***
*** ZLIB was not found. You will not be able to use ZLIB compression.
Logged In: YES
user_id=2108381
Originator: YES
When adding --without-zlib-prefix to EXTRA_OECONF zlib support does compile.