A very old report from v2.97 seems very similar, but had no infomation about the cause - see: http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2034
Bootstrapping gcc fails with the error: /home/brian/public/gnu/arm-elf/install.unix/arm-elf/bin/as: unrecognised option `-Qy` Where ...arm-elf/bin/as is a current binutils cvs version just compiled The configure line is: ../src/configure --target=arm-elf --enable-interwork --enable-multilib --enable-languages=c --without-headers --prefix=/home/brian/public/gnu/arm-elf/install.unix The command that causes the error is: gcc -c -g -O2 -DIN_GCC -DCROSS_DIRECTORY_STRUCTURE -W -Wall -Wwrite-strings -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wold-style-definition -Wmissing-format-attribute -fno-common -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DGENERATOR_FILE -I. -Ibuild -I../../gcc/gcc -I../../gcc/gcc/build -I../../gcc/gcc/../include -I../../gcc/gcc/../libcpp/include -I../../gcc/gcc/../libdecnumber -I../../gcc/gcc/../libdecnumber/dpd -I../libdecnumber -o build/genmodes.o ../../gcc/gcc/genmodes.c The pre-processed file is available at http://www.valvers.com/genmodes.i The output of adding -v -save-temps to the command is: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~/public/gnu/gcc/build.unix/gcc$ gcc -v -save-temps -c -g -O2 -DIN_GCC -DCROSS_DIRECTORY_STRUCTURE -W -Wall -Wwrite-strings -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wold-style-definition -Wmissing-format-attribute -fno-common -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DGENERATOR_FILE -I. -Ibuild -I../../gcc/gcc -I../../gcc/gcc/build -I../../gcc/gcc/../include -I../../gcc/gcc/../libcpp/include -I../../gcc/gcc/../libdecnumber -I../../gcc/gcc/../libdecnumber/dpd -I../libdecnumber -o build/genmodes.o ../../gcc/gcc/genmodes.c Using built-in specs. Target: i486-linux-gnu Configured with: ../src/configure -v --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++,treelang --prefix=/usr --enable-shared --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --enable-nls --program-suffix=-4.1 --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-mpfr --enable-checking=release i486-linux-gnu Thread model: posix gcc version 4.1.2 (Ubuntu 4.1.2-0ubuntu4) /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/cc1 -E -quiet -v -I. -Ibuild -I../../gcc/gcc -I../../gcc/gcc/build -I../../gcc/gcc/../include -I../../gcc/gcc/../libcpp/include -I../../gcc/gcc/../libdecnumber -I../../gcc/gcc/../libdecnumber/dpd -I../libdecnumber -DIN_GCC -DCROSS_DIRECTORY_STRUCTURE -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DGENERATOR_FILE ../../gcc/gcc/genmodes.c -mtune=generic -W -Wall -Wwrite-strings -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wold-style-definition -Wmissing-format-attribute -fno-common -fworking-directory -O2 -fpch-preprocess -o genmodes.i ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/local/include/i486-linux-gnu" ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/../../../../i486-linux-gnu/include" ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/include/i486-linux-gnu" ignoring nonexistent directory "../../gcc/gcc/build" #include "..." search starts here: #include <...> search starts here: . build ../../gcc/gcc ../../gcc/gcc/../include ../../gcc/gcc/../libcpp/include ../../gcc/gcc/../libdecnumber ../../gcc/gcc/../libdecnumber/dpd ../libdecnumber /usr/local/include /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/include /usr/include End of search list. /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/cc1 -fpreprocessed genmodes.i -quiet -dumpbase genmodes.c -mtune=generic -auxbase-strip build/genmodes.o -g -O2 -W -Wall -Wwrite-strings -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wold-style-definition -Wmissing-format-attribute -version -fno-common -fstack-protector -fstack-protector -o genmodes.s GNU C version 4.1.2 (Ubuntu 4.1.2-0ubuntu4) (i486-linux-gnu) compiled by GNU C version 4.1.2 (Ubuntu 4.1.2-0ubuntu4). GGC heuristics: --param ggc-min-expand=55 --param ggc-min-heapsize=48106 Compiler executable checksum: c0d954aeefbb96d795ff3f6b3b72ef51 as -V -Qy -o build/genmodes.o genmodes.s /home/brian/public/gnu/arm-elf/install.unix/arm-elf/bin/as: unrecognized option `-V' -- Summary: CVS bootstrap failure with as: unrecognised option -Qy Product: gcc Version: 4.3.0 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: bootstrap AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org ReportedBy: brian dot sidebotham at gmail dot com GCC build triplet: i686-pc-linux-gnu GCC host triplet: i686-pc-linux-gnu GCC target triplet: arm-none-elf http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=32829