thanks for the help. i haven't yet attempted to solve this next problem on my own (which i generally like to do), but i figured someone might be able to save me some time when i start playing with this stuff when I get home in two or three hours. I'm now getting this error:

$ make
/usr/local/armtools-empeg/bin/arm-empeg-linux-gcc -I/usr/local/armtools-empeg/arm-empeg-linux/include -I/home/jrm20/empeg/kernel/linux-v2.00b11/include -I/home/jrm20/empeg/gd-1.8.4 -L/usr/local/armtools-empeg/arm-empeg-linux/lib -lm emptriv.c -L/usr/local/armtools-empeg/arm-empeg-linux/lib -L/home/jrm20/empeg/gd-1.8.4 -lgd -lpng -lz -o emptriv
collect2: ld terminated with signal 11 [Segmentation fault], core dumped
make: *** [emptriv] Error 1

after I compiled the gd libraries and linked the .a files. I suspect my problem is that i need to change the makefile of the libraries need to be complied with the arm gcc, instead of my x86 gcc, which is what i compiled them with the last time. Does that sound like it will fix my problem?