The Fedora armv5tel / x86_64 cross-compiler toolchain is a bit ancient (GCC 4.1.2!), and the Pi is armv6..  So.. I needed a more up-to-date and architecture-friendly substitute..

After some abortive attempts (some of the other armv7 cross-compilers were just as old!)   I found a set of armv7 / x86_64 cross-compiler rpms – including gcc version 4.6.1 – from a certain Franco-Brazilian distro, and ‘unpacked’ the rpms (using ark) and did a rough-and-ready manual install+hack on my Fedora 16 x86_64 main system.. including fixing and ‘creating’ a few appropriate softlinks..

So, I now have:

• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-addr2line
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-ar
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-as
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-c++
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-c++filt
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-cpp
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-elfedit
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-g++
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-gcc
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-gcc-4.6.1
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-gcov
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-gprof
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-ld
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-ld.bfd
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-nm
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-objcopy
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-objdump
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-ranlib
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-readelf
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-size
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-strings
• armv7l-mandriva-linux-gnueabi-strip…………  etc.  etc..

– and as I don’t have a Pi, yet, I tested these by using them to compile a kernel for my armv5 Dreamplug, and (amazingly) it all worked!

$ uname -a
Linux rgdreamplug 3.3.0-rc6 #3 Sat Mar 10 14:16:41 GMT 2012 armv5tel armv5tel armv5tel GNU/Linux

Usual disclaimer – This worked on my system  It may not on yours. If you are unsure how to do all this – Don’t!