Thanks for all the insights and help. 
1)  I went to box B, and switched my kernel back to the factory 
distribution 3.1, and rebuilt the tools for 3.1 from a 3.1 box.  Tools 
built fine.
./build.sh -U tools

2) From box B, I tried to install the distribution I had previously 
built on box A 4.99.19.  So I'm running 3.1 on box B and
./build.sh -O /usr/obj -D /usr/destdir -x -U install=/            
(/usr/obj & /usr/desdir are NFS mounted to my 4.99.19 box A)

The base installed on box B, then everything fell apart.

mkdir quit working, ls quit working, so I started over, reformatted and 
reinstalled 3.1

 From my native and freshly installed 3.1, with my /usr/src directory 
NFS mounted, I am building 4.99.31.  This should work, but it is taking 
me forever and a day.  I wish I had known more about the distribution 
sets.  I thought the tools, once compiled in a 3.1 environment, would be 
able to access and install the 4.99.31 userland built on my 4.99.19 
system, but it didn't.  I'll try the tarball approach next time.  Seems 
like an awful waste of time having to compile 4.99.31 on my old and slow 
system running 3.1.


Bill Stouder-Studenmund wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 25, 2007 at 06:53:30PM -0500, Kenneth Freidank wrote:
>   
>> I get a build error about the toolchain that I don't think I should be 
>> getting.  Can anyone lend a hand?
>>
>> I just built 4.99.31 (from tar files labeled 9/10/07) on box A running 
>> 4.99.19.  My target is box B.
>>
>> My intent was to not install anything, just build.  (did I just update 
>> box A and didn't realize what I did?)
>>   ./build.sh -O /usr/obj -T /usr/tools -D /usr/destdir/ -x -U distribution
>>   ./build.sh -O /usr/obj -T /usr/tools -D /usr/destdir/ -x -U -u release
>>     
>
> As others have noted, the problem is your tools directory is built for 
> 4.99.31.
>
> However if you built a release, you have tarballs (base.tgz and co) 
> around. Copy them to the new box, boot single user, and untar them. Don't 
> forget "-p" to tar so that su and friends work right.
>
> Take care,
>
> Bill
>