Debugging symbols from gcc

[Gerald Champagne <gerald.champagne@esstech.com>]

I'm trying to use a Wind River VisionProbe debugger with the
Linux kernel, but I can't get the compiler to generate the symbols
in the proper format.  The debugger works with an old compiler
that places the symbols in sections called ".stab" and ".stabstr".
It doesn't work with the newer compiler that places the symbols
in a section called ".mdebug" (which I think is specific to sgi).

The version that creates .stab/.stabstr sections is:
$ /usr/local/sde4/bin/gcc --version egcs-2.90.23 980102 (egcs-1.0.1 release)

The version that creates .mdebug sections is:
$ /usr/bin/mips-linux-gcc --version egcs-2.91.66

Is there a way to specify the output format of the debug symbols?  I've
seen documentation that references a -gstabs option, but that doesn't
seem to work.  Should I be using a different version of the compiler?
I'm just using the rpm's that were on the sgi site.

Thanks.

Gerald