Although it sounds like your real problem is lack of user-space
memory, you can try turning off optimization in the kernel Makefile.
I hear that egcs is very aggressive about optimizing things, and
consequently uses a lot of memory and CPU.

Chris

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------cjones@math.montana.edu
Chris Jones                                          cjones@honors.montana.edu
           Mad scientist at large                    cjones@nervana.montana.edu
"Is this going to be a stand-up programming session, sir, or another bug hunt?"