[Techtalk] questions re installing gcc-3.4.2

[Val Henson]

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 06:58:07 -0700, Darlene Wallach
<wallachd at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> I'm acutally downloading tar files so I can get used to
> configuring, building, and installing software.

That sounds like a great idea, although I would personally start out
with compiling something smaller like file-utils or xchat or the like.
 gcc, if nothing else, just takes a long time to build (and so it
takes a long time to find out if something has gone wrong).

> What I'm really up to is I want to look at and learn
> the Linux kernel and device drivers. I've downloaded
> the 2.6.8.1 kernel. The kernel hackers website suggests
> using BitKeeper. So I have downloaded glibc-2.3.3,
> gcc-3.4.2 and all the required versions of support stuff.
> Looks like quite an undertaking - I need to reread the
> directions/instructions again. I'm not sure how to figure
> out if I have an earlier version of glibc already installed
> or only some version of libc. So I have some more
> research to do on my computer.

Have you read the LinuxChix Kernel Hacking Lessons?

http://www.linuxchix.org/content/courses/kernel_hacking/

The way I find out what version of glibc is installed is:

$ ls /lib/libc-*

(glibc is libc - GNU libc.)

> That reminds me, an earlier version of BitKeeper
> wants a hostname for my computer. I have never had
> a hostname - only the default localhost, which is not
> a valid hostname.

What I've been doing is adding a line like this to my /etc/hosts file:

10.0.0.3        host3.sbcglobal.net     host3

Abstracted, it's:

<my ip> <made up host>.<my ISP domain> <made up host>

But don't tell Larry I told you to do that. :)

> > P.S. I'm trying out gmail for the first time - apologies if line
> > lengths are off or anything like that.
> 
> Everything seems fine to me. btw, you're not
> worried about your privacy with gmail?

For mailing list email?  No.  I'm hardly taking any reasonable
precautions for privacy in my personal email account anyway.  The main
reason I'm using it is that I'm trying to avoid becoming a software
Luddite - you know, the person still using that 20-year-old window
manager?

-VAL