GNUTAR program not available

Hello.

I've been running an Amanda Server (2.4.4p2) on Debian to backup 13 clients
(Debian machines as well).

I came to a challenge where I need to backup a Solaris 2.6 (sparc).

The amanda-client found on sunfreeware.com was installed properly:
amanda-2.4.1p1-sol26-sparc-local.gz

The problem here is that amcheck on the server returns this:

***
Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
ERROR: mat.mydomain.com: [GNUTAR program not available]
Client check: 14 hosts checked in 140.417 seconds, 1 problem found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p2)
***

I installed, then, this package, also found on sunfreeware.com:
tar-1.13.94-sol26-sparc-local

As amanda is running as bin/bin on the Solaris machine, I've switched to the
bin user and tested it (to see if it's gnutar at all) as follows:

***
mat:~# su - bin
$ tar --version
tar (GNU tar) 1.13.94
Copyright (C) 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
You may redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License;
see the file named COPYING for details.
Written by John Gilmore and Jay Fenlason.
***

Taking a look at /tmp/amanda/amandad.debug, I've seen these paths (defaut?):

***
amandad: paths: bindir="/usr/local/bin" sbindir="/usr/local/sbin"
amandad:        libexecdir="/usr/local/libexec" mandir="/usr/local/man"
amandad:        CONFIG_DIR="/usr/local/etc/amanda" DEV_PREFIX="/dev/dsk/"
amandad:        RDEV_PREFIX="/dev/rdsk/" DUMP="/usr/sbin/ufsdump"
amandad:        RESTORE="/usr/sbin/ufsrestore"
amandad:        COMPRESS_PATH="/usr/local/bin/gzip"
amandad:        UNCOMPRESS_PATH="/usr/local/bin/gzip"
amandad:        MAILER="/usr/ucb/Mail"
***

All tar files which formerly existed on these paths were turned into links
to the new gnutar, which binary was installed on /usr/local/bin/tar. This
way, whenever I run "tar --version", I get the same response as above.

Checking this list history, I noticed that everybody solved this by
recompiling the client using --with-gnutar=/correct/pathto/gnutar. This
leads to my questions:

1) Is that the only way out? Or can I override this even with the
amanda-client package from sunfreeware?

2) In the /tmp/amanda/amandad.debug above, I see info about dump and gzip
path, but not for tar. Does this package come ready for tar?

Sorry for taking too long and thanks in advance for your attention.

Regards,
Pipoli