kernel building question

[Mills]

These are somewhat newbie questions. Apologies if this has already
been handled, but usenet is at times a haystack.

First I'll explain what I'm doing, then I'll ask the question.
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Embedded System
linux-2.4.17 (Patched)
Patches: one for 1000Hz tick, preempt-kernel-rml and lock-break-rml
uClibc-0.9.19
BusyBox-0.60.3 (Patched for telnetd)
Other various Applications ...

Initially development was done using RH7.2, updated to 7.3, the
eventually to 8.0. That's when all hell broke loose. Kernel became
very unstable. I finally figured out that gcc 2.96 and compat-ecgs
were required for kgcc. Everything was fine again.

Question: Wasn't the kernel building problem fixed in 3.2? Or am I
experiencing some gcc 3.2-7 incompatibility with
linux-2.4.17(patched)?
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Question: Recently discovering apt (a true god send), apt wants to
install compat-gcc with gcc-2.96. When gcc was at 3.2-7, this wasn't
an issue. After installing gcc-2.96, cpp-2.96, compat-glibc-6.2, and
compat-egcs-6.2, and getting apt to hold gcc & cpp back it now wants
to install compat-gcc which supplies gcc296. Can somebody tell me if
there is a better way to build a kernel on RH8 what downgrading to gcc
2.96?

If more information is needed just ask. Thanks in advance.