Segmentation faults when compiling kernel 2.6.38.6

[coonhunter]

I decided to compile a linux kernel today for educational purposes.I already have the latest 2.6.38.6 kernel installed from the repos but thought i might make a few modifications to it.So i downloaded the source package for the latest stable release: 2.6.38.6 from kernel.org.Ran make menuconfig to modify a few settings stripping out a few un-needed modules,drivers and need for initramdisk support.Then ran make all to start compiling the kernel and its modules.No matter how many times i ran the compilation it kept giving me "internal compiler error messages" with segmentation faults.Thinking that it may be hardware problem (according this site: http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/) i replaced the memory sticks from another machine and still ran into the same problem.The compilation process would stop at different places each time.The compiler version is gcc4.5

Has anyone encountered a similar problem before?

[AS]

Hello,

as I understand you have substituted the RAM modules, after the substitution did you perform a memory test ?
sometimes the issue is in the memory socket or in the motherboard ...

AS

[coonhunter]

Hello,

as I understand you have substituted the RAM modules, after the substitution did you perform a memory test ?
sometimes the issue is in the memory socket or in the motherboard ...

AS

I ran memtest86+ v4.10 (installed from the repos).It passed with no problems.I finally ended up compiling it on my LinuxMint8 partition on the same machine which runs kernel 2.6.31-14 with gcc v4.4.So the problem appears to be either a buggy compiler or some bug in the memory managment system in the kernel (running 2.6.38.6 on pclos2010.12).This may be unrelated but over the last week since upgrading to the latest kernel i also had vlc media player 1.1.9 crashing out suddenly a few times with a segmentation fault after opening a video file.Since this is not a frequent occurrence i'll carry on with the current setup but i'm beginning to see why people warn against upgrading from already stable kernels simply for the sake of it.