I can´t get any software installed. Everytime I try a make (whether or not there is a ./configure) I get responses like this:
I got that while trying to install idesk. It always has some syntax or parse errors no matter what I try to make. I also tried switching g++ to c++ in the Makefiles, no joy. If I rpm -qa | grep gcc then I get the following:I am using Mandrake 9.1 and I really need help! Thanks!

is the error always with those header files? (Xft.h)?

Not always, here is another example:
I realise that I need to modify the makefile, but do not exactly how, so perhaps this is not the finest example.

Well... the packages you have installed (g++ and so on) have an mdk extension so I'm assuming you're using a mandrake distro. Mandrake is based on Redhat, and I know that Redhat often modifies its compilers... (they had modified 2.95 I think a while back and it had all kinds of recursion errors in it).

Now considering XFree86's widespread use I doubt that they would actually have as many syntax errors as the compiler is saying it has in your original post. So you have two options... we know redhat modifies their distributed software for better or worse... so they have either A modified the compiler in such a way that for some reason it now does not recognize proper C/C++ syntax or B they have modified Xft (and other source packages on your system) and messed up the syntax themselves...

I think my advice to you would be to remove the compiler packages... g++, etc. from your system and download the gcc source from gcc's homepage at gnu.org and install it. Then if it still complains about syntax problems... well we'll go from there. Some of the errors you have listed can be fixed by passing a -I/usr/X11/include (or something similiar) to the compiler, but the other errors ... like saying that Xft.h has a syntax error in it, are just unlikely.

That's my advice, you can take it or leave it. The other thing to do would be to check the errors that you're getting yourself and go into the source code and check for syntax errors.

does that help at all? judging from some of my other posts today I think this is going to be a rambling kinda day. sorry... in advance.

i agree with jpbarto

i would not have two gcc rpms first of all
and it seems that removing both of them and installing just one
would solve your problem

I am having the same problem, what i determined that it was is that the with the release of G++ 3.2 or greater it is actually incompatible with the releases 3.1.1 or earlier (this is stated on gnu's website somewhere). So when you try to compile code that is perfectly ok it gives mass errors. Any clue as to how i can uninstall those packages and reinstall an earlier version of gnu c++.

mandrake is still rpm based right... uninstall gcc using the rpm utility.
Note: it's probably not safe to uninstall any libraries (like glibc) as many apps on your box will probably rely on those specific versions... so leave libraries alone.

then download the source for whatever gcc version you like and follow its installation instructions.