glibc 2.2.5 build questions

[tag]

Hi,

I am attempting to compile glibc 2.2.5 for a 386 target and would like a 
little extra insight into the things that I am doing to (hopefully) 
achieve successful compilation of the glibc source.   If anyone can 
answer one or more of the questions below I will be most pleased :-)

According to the glibc INSTALL file I should use --host=i386-linux 
during configure and add -mcpu=i386 to CFLAGS.  I am compiling the 
source on a AMD Athlon based machine running Redhat 7.3.

I am configuring as follows:

configure --enable-add-ons --prefix=/usr --host=i386-linux 
--with-headers=$HOME/linux-2.4.21/include --without-gd

I am compiling on a Redhat 7.3 machine which reports gcc 2.96 and 
binutils 2.11.93

(1) How do I *add* -mcpu=i386 to CFLAGS?  After googling I came across a 
post the said I could add -mcpu=i386 to CFLAGS by using:

   export CFLAGS="-mcpu=i386"

However, this doesn't seem to work as the export CFLAGS seems to 
*replace*  CFLAGS.  So perhaps I can't add to the flags but only 
replace.  Is this correct?

(2) At the moment I am assuming the answer to question (1) above is that 
I can only replace CFLAGS and not append to them.  So my next question 
is what should I set the CFLAGS to?  Again after googling it seems that 
this should do the trick:

   export CFLAGS="-mcpu=i386 -O2"

(3) Whether I set CFLAGS or not, at the moment I am getting an error 
during compilation:
   Inconsistency detected by ld.so: dl-load.c: 627: _dl_init_paths: 
Assertion 'pelem->dirname[0] == '/" Failed!
   Make[2] Leaving directory glibc-2.2.5/sunrpc
   Make[2] Leavinf directory glibc-2.2.5/sunrpc/xbootparam_prot.stmp] 
Error 127

I am using a recent Kernel (2.4.21) and an older glibc (2.2.5) - Do I 
need to use a newer version of glibc or should this be OK?  Can anything 
in my kernel configuration cause this - I have configured + compiled the 
kernel.  Maybe I should upgrade glibc to 2.3.x?

(4) I found that I needed to add --without-gd to the configure script.  
I'm not quite sure what gd is but I am thinking I don't need it on my 
target system - because its an embedded system with no graphics.  After 
searching the internet, I find that most people who have problems 
compiling glibc are not actually doing this so I am thinking that maybe 
this is causing me a problem - or maybe I'm clutching at straws!!

(5) Final question...The glibc INSTALL file recommends building with gcc 
2.95 or newer. Does glibc2.2.5 still compile the latest versions of gcc, 
e.g gcc3.3.2?  i.e. is gcc backward compatible with the version of glibc 
that I am currently using?

Any questions answered will be greatly welcomed :-)