Gcc v2.96 versus Trolltech QtEmbedded Window System

["Kevin D. Kissell" <kevink@mips.com>]

I am trying to build the GPL version of the Trolltech
QT embedded windowing system on my Malta, using
what I believe to be H.J. Lu's most recent tool chain:

[root@localhost release-emb-generic]# g++ -v
Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/mipsel-redhat-linux-gnu/2.96/specs
gcc version 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.3 2.96-110.1)

The QT build process is a little unusual - the configure
script causes a fairly huge (640KB) C++ source file
to be generated, which is then thrown at the compiler.
I would expect that to take a while, but after about 
20 hours with zero output passed to the assembler
stage (it runs with -pipe) and the gradual accretion
of about 90MB of virtual memory (on my poor 32MB
system) I concluded that it was probably trapped in
an infinite loop.  As I have seen this sort of thing occur
in the past in optimizer stages, I hacked the makefile
to replace -O2 with -O0.  It hasn't run for 20 hours
at -O0 yet, but after a couple of hours the memory 
allocation dynamic looks to be the same, only faster
(72MB after only a couple of hours), so I'm not
optimistic.

My questions to the assembled panel of experts are:

Are there known problems with gcc 2.96.110.1 in
this regard?

Is there a native toolchain that would be more 
likely to be able to handle the build of QT?
I'm considering trying the 2.95 set on Maciej's
site out of desperation.

Has anyone succeeded in building QT Embedded
for mips(el) Linux, either native or using cross-tools?

            Regards,

            Kevin K.