kernel and gcc issues -- giving it one more shot

[Robert P. J. Day]

  refusing to defer to discretion (or good judgment), i'm going to take
one more stab at severn on my system, and i'd like to clarify some simple
issues regarding versions of gcc.  one step at a time, i figure.

  immediately upon installation, the kernel that is installed was clearly
built with gcc 3.2, while gcc itself is gcc 3.3 (although gcc 3.2 is still
available through the "gcc32" executable).  this has a couple of immediate
consequences.

  first, there is the occasion where you have to deal with a kernel and
compiler mismatch, particularly with nvidia drivers.  if you try to
compile the latest nvidia driver normally, you get a "mismatch" error that
you can override by defining the "IGNORE_CC_MISMATCH" environment
variable when you build.  fair enough, but of course, you never know
when this issue will come up again elsewhere.

  second issue is whether there is any problem simply recompiling the
installed kernel source with gcc (3.3, that is)?  is there anything about
that kernel that's necessarily gcc 3.2-related?

  i decided to test recompiling with gcc 3.3, using the config file found
in /boot, and the compile failed partway through the modules.  rerunning
the make with "make CC=gcc32 modules", however, seems to be working.  i
could, of course, just config out the offending (I2C) option, and try
again with gcc 3.3, which i'll probably try just for the entertainment
value.

  but is there any reason *not* to rebuild the kernel using gcc 3.3, in
order to avoid any future mismatch issues? 

rday