> Does the new egcs compiler really require this much extra time (48+
> hours) to build a kernel or is my system not really installed
> correctly?

egcs is significantly more agressive at optimizations, and thus
significantly slower and bigger than gcc 2.7.

Also, the 1.4 GENERIC kernel has enough new drivers, etc., in it that
the amount of memory left over for the system is significantly
reduced..

Chances are that the amount of available physical memory in the
machine is less than egcs's working set, and it's thrashing badly.

Probably your best bet is to try to put more memory into the system,
or build a cut-down kernel on another system.

					- Bill