I'm running SUSE Linux Enterprise 10. I've realized at this point that it's a terrible distro, but am trying to work with it, etc.
Long story short, I'm trying to install a new version of GTK+ for gtkpod because Helix Banshee doesn't work with the checksums in my iPod.
I started to build GTK+ and I ended up stuck with Pango, because it required Cairo, which required a C++ compiler, which required GMP and MPFR.
I got GMP and MPFR running, no problem - but now I can't get GCC to compile.

I'm getting an error message saying:
[this is truncated]
/local/i686-pc-linux-gnu/bin/ -B/usr/local/i686-pc-linux-gnu/lib/ -isystem /usr/local/i686-pc-linux-gnu/include -isystem /usr/local/i686-pc-linux-gnu/sys-include
checking for suffix of object files... configure: error: cannot compute suffix of object files: cannot compile
See `config.log' for more details.
make[2]: *** [configure-stage1-target-libgcc] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/allyanncah/gcc-4.3.1'
make[1]: *** [stage1-bubble] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/allyanncah/gcc-4.3.1'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Any insight here? I need the compiler to get Cairo to compile properly, etc. etc. I don't want to be up forever with this and would like to tie up the loose ends...
It looks to me like it's targeting a directory that I don't think exists, but I'm lost from there - Linux is new to me.

You need a working compiler to compile anything -- including a compiler.

I recommend installing what you need from the official repositories. I know gcc is in there. No idea about gtkpod or what version -- do you know of a particular version of gtkpod with the features you need?

I guess, you already have 'gcc' installed ?, since you
were able to compile gmp and mpfr ? Why not just install
'gcc-g++' with Yeast ? > Menu > System > Yeast.
('gcc-g++' would also be on your install DVD)

Be aware that 500 other packages depends on the
originally installed gtk2 (-2.8.10?) Most of your
system might stop working, if the new gtk2 is visible.

Regards

I am kind of confused why you would continue with a distro that you have already found to be "terrible". Surely there are many other ones around?

I know that the particular (newer) version of gtkpod I'm looking for has a different checksum, so it can get into the iPod without locking the database, which is what I did without thinking (Helix Banshee doesn't have that checksum capability).

Isn't there a way to run some programs that depend on the new one while keeping the old one? From what I see, Linux generally doesn't overwrite things unless you explicitly tell it to.

There are, but I'm not yet experienced enough with Linux to know how to move my GUI/distro/anything big like that around. Help with that would be nice, but I don't want to go it alone and end up with a system I can't fix on my hands. That would be really bad, considering I'm a student and this laptop is my lifeline for doing well.

Have continued trying with an older release of gtkpod, still no dice.
I may end up forgettingit and just taking it to the Apple store - but still going to try and figure out how to switch up my distro.

Care to explain what you mean by moving your distro around? Basically, if you want a new one, you wipe your drive/partitions clean and you install a different one. In fact, you can simply pop in a different install cd/dvd and overwrite any distro that was already installed. Of course, if you have saved data that you would like to keep, you'd need to back them up first.