Bering is based on a 2.4.18 kernel. The recommended compiler for this kernel is GCC 2.95.3 or 2.95.4

GCC 3.x can be used as well but according to the kernel Documentation Change file you might get some trouble using it. I have never experienced such problems but the reason why I do not use GCC 3.x is that it leads to a larger kernel image than the 2.95.x compiler. Also note that the 2.7 compiler provided with Debian/slink CANNOT be used with 2.4.x kernels. That is why you have to use a more recent development environment. I personally use Debian/Woody ("stable").

You also need GNU make 3.77 or later and a recent binutils release. On my machine I have:

leafdoc@samsung:~$ gcc -v
Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-linux/2.95.4/specs
gcc version 2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prerelease)

leafdoc@samsung:~$ make --version
GNU Make version 3.79.1, by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath.

leafdoc@samsung:~$ ld -v
GNU ld version 2.12.90.0.1 20020307 Debian/GNU Linux
leafdoc@samsung:~$ 

This development environment is the one which has been used to compile the kernel and the corresponding "modules.lrp" package of the Bering distro. But once again, you can use any "modern" linux distribution (that is offering a GCC 2.95.3 or better compiler) to do that.

For the Bering developers who want a "ready-to-go" compilation environment, they can use a Debian/woody virtual machine. This machine is provided with a Bering patched (rc4) 2.4.18 linux source file.