I got a similar error when runing "bitbake meta-toolchain-sdk":
###############
$ bitbake meta-toolchain-sdk
Pseudo is not present but is required, building this first before the main build
Parsing recipes: 100% |##################################################################################################################################################| ETA:  00:00:00
Parsing of 816 .bb files complete (0 cached, 816 parsed). 1122 targets, 52 skipped, 0 masked, 0 errors.

Build Configuration:
BB_VERSION        = "1.17.0"
BUILD_SYS         = "x86_64-linux"
NATIVELSBSTRING   = "Ubuntu-11.10"
TARGET_SYS        = "mips-poky-linux"
MACHINE           = "qemumips"
DISTRO            = "poky"
DISTRO_VERSION    = "1.3+snapshot-20121231"
TUNE_FEATURES     = "o32 bigendian fpu-hard mips32"
TARGET_FPU        = ""
meta              
meta-yocto        
meta-yocto-bsp    = "master:4a36a32567ecfbc7ce7b967803e6e23314953ef5"

NOTE: Resolving any missing task queue dependencies
NOTE: Preparing runqueue
NOTE: Executing SetScene Tasks
NOTE: Executing RunQueue Tasks
NOTE: Tasks Summary: Attempted 63 tasks of which 0 didn't need to be rerun and all succeeded.
Loading cache: 100% |####################################################################################################################################################| ETA:  00:00:00
Loaded 1123 entries from dependency cache.

Build Configuration:
BB_VERSION        = "1.17.0"
BUILD_SYS         = "x86_64-linux"
NATIVELSBSTRING   = "Ubuntu-11.10"
TARGET_SYS        = "mips-poky-linux"
MACHINE           = "qemumips"
DISTRO            = "poky"
DISTRO_VERSION    = "1.3+snapshot-20121231"
TUNE_FEATURES     = "o32 bigendian fpu-hard mips32"
TARGET_FPU        = ""
meta              
meta-yocto        
meta-yocto-bsp    = "master:4a36a32567ecfbc7ce7b967803e6e23314953ef5"

NOTE: Resolving any missing task queue dependencies
NOTE: Preparing runqueue
NOTE: Executing SetScene Tasks
NOTE: Executing RunQueue Tasks
ERROR: Function failed: populate_sdk_image (see /buildarea1/yzhao1/poky/build-qemumips/tmp/work/mips32-poky-linux/meta-toolchain-gmae/1.0-r7/temp/log.do_populate_sdk.11849 for further information)
ERROR: Logfile of failure stored in: /buildarea1/yzhao1/poky/build-qemumips/tmp/work/mips32-poky-linux/meta-toolchain-gmae/1.0-r7/temp/log.do_populate_sdk.11849
Log data follows:
| DEBUG: Executing python function do_populate_sdk
| DEBUG: Executing shell function populate_sdk_image
| Previous repo file missing: /buildarea1/yzhao1/poky/build-qemumips/tmp/deploy/rpm/all/repodata/primary.xml.gz
| Previous repo file missing: /buildarea1/yzhao1/poky/build-qemumips/tmp/deploy/rpm/mips32/repodata/primary.xml.gz
| Previous repo file missing: /buildarea1/yzhao1/poky/build-qemumips/tmp/deploy/rpm/qemumips/repodata/primary.xml.gz
| Previous repo file missing: /buildarea1/yzhao1/poky/build-qemumips/tmp/deploy/rpm/x86_64_nativesdk/repodata/primary.xml.gz
| Note: configuring RPM platform settings
| Note: configuring RPM system provides
| Note: configuring RPM DB settings
| Note: configuring Smart settings
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| Note: adding Smart channel qemumips (35)
| 
| 
| Note: adding Smart channel mips32 (30)
| 
| 
| Note: adding Smart channel all (10)
| 
| 
| Note: configuring RPM cross-install scriptlet_wrapper
| 
| Updating cache...               ######################################## [100%]
| 
| Saving cache...
| 
| Note: adding Smart RPM DB channel
| 
| Note: to be installed:  packagegroup-core-standalone-gmae-sdk-target-dbg@all packagegroup-core-standalone-gmae-sdk-target@all
| Loading cache...
| Updating cache...               ######################################## [100%]
| 
| Computing transaction...error: Can't install bash-4.2-r6@mips32: no package provides update-alternatives-cworth
| 
| Saving cache...
| 
| DEBUG: Python function do_populate_sdk finished
| ERROR: Function failed: populate_sdk_image (see /buildarea1/yzhao1/poky/build-qemumips/tmp/work/mips32-poky-linux/meta-toolchain-gmae/1.0-r7/temp/log.do_populate_sdk.11849 for further information)
ERROR: Task 7 (/buildarea1/yzhao1/poky/meta/recipes-core/meta/meta-toolchain-gmae.bb, do_populate_sdk) failed with exit code '1'
NOTE: Tasks Summary: Attempted 4140 tasks of which 362 didn't need to be rerun and 1 failed.
No currently running tasks (4140 of 4141)

Summary: 1 task failed:
  /buildarea1/yzhao1/poky/meta/recipes-core/meta/meta-toolchain-gmae.bb, do_populate_sdk
Summary: There was 1 ERROR message shown, returning a non-zero exit code.
##############

It is a clean build without using sstate. The host is ubuntu 11.10 x86_64

the error still happened when build arm,ppc and mips meta-toolchain using "bitbake meta-toolchain-gmae" on opensuse 12.2 x86_64 host.
git info:09359e6ec00901abfe49157f1f9730117b4d284b
git branch: poky/master

(In reply to comment #2)
> the error still happened when build arm,ppc and mips meta-toolchain using
> "bitbake meta-toolchain-gmae" on opensuse 12.2 x86_64 host.
> git info:09359e6ec00901abfe49157f1f9730117b4d284b
> git branch: poky/master

the error not met when run "bitbake core-image-sato-sdk" firstly,then run "bitbake meta-toolchain-gmae" on opensuse 12.2 x86_64 host with the same git commit above.

*** Bug 3658 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

#3691 has some overlap with this bug

The missing /usr/bin/env is a duplication of 3691 -- see the proposed patch in that defect.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 3691 ***

no such error with git master branch commit:37e025f6f9c410005e0f1dee0767e38eaec01cbd,related log below:
-------
...
NOTE: Running task 4028 of 4029 (ID: 7, /buildarea/poky.ubuntu.new1/poky/meta/recipes-core/meta/meta-toolchain-gmae.bb, do_populate_sdk)
NOTE: recipe meta-toolchain-gmae-1.0-r7: task do_populate_sdk: Started
NOTE: recipe meta-toolchain-gmae-1.0-r7: task do_populate_sdk: Succeeded
NOTE: Running noexec task 4029 of 4029 (ID: 11, /buildarea/poky.ubuntu.new1/poky/meta/recipes-core/meta/meta-toolchain-gmae.bb, do_build)
NOTE: Tasks Summary: Attempted 4029 tasks of which 1951 didn't need to be rerun and all succeeded.
-------
test host:opensuse 12.2 x86_64.