On Mon, 2004-09-06 at 18:56 +1000, Rod Butcher wrote:
> Thanks for responding James and Oscar... after much agonising it dawned 
> on me that I'd creamed my compiler... I'd uninstalled 3.3.2-6 and 
> repaced it with 3.4.1-3 because vmware requested that I compile its 
> interface with the same version the kernel was compiled with.
> As soon as I reinstalled 3.3.2-6 things returned to normal, no more 
> --as-needed rubbish, and I was able to proceeed with kernel compilation.
> So - is there anything extra I ought to do when upgrading my compiler 
> other than just installing the relevant rpms ? Magic spells etc ?

Well, it all depends. Mandrake occasionally release experimental gcc
versions under a package name like gcc35 (in cooker anyway). If you want
to actually use that compiler package you need to run update-
alternatives to make sure the system is pointing to the right binary for
the compiler (though I don't recommend gcc 3.5 right now. It'll do some
cool stuff when it's finished though).

All that said, as long as you satisfy the dependencies of the RPM
packages you generally won't hit issues. The thing about kernel modules
needing the same compiler as your running kernel is a bit of a special
case. It's also a bit of a fallacy in my experience. The only time you
should get issues is if the ABI changes between compiler versions. That
hasn't happened for a while though. There's a bunch of caveats to that
but I generally find it's easier to just build with what I have on the
system and only do the upgrade dance when things don't work.

I generally don't upgrade compilers directly, I let that happen as part
of a full system upgrade. That way I know that the linkers, loaders,
library versions etc are all consistent and they will be what the
upstream buildboxes will be using as well.

HTH,

James.

-- 
James Gregory <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

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