[PLUG] Kernel 2.2.17 not compiling with gcc

[Matthew Henkler]

After moving from RedHat 6.2 to 7.0, the Kernel 2.2.17 would no longer
recompile.  Gcc 2.96-54 has errors when trying to compile
/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/libs/checksum.S by saying the #define directives at
lines 231 and 237 had bad punctuation.  However, after I uninstalled gcc,
and installed egcs 1.1.2 from redhat 6.2, everything compiled great.  I
thought egcs and gcc merged, so why is it managing to compile on the older
egcs than on the newer gcc?  Is it safe using and older version of the gcc
compiler, or could it cause problems?

matt