Question about "native" compiling

[Rune Torgersen]

linuxppc-embedded-bounces+runet=innovsys.com at ozlabs.org wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I apologize if the list finds this off topic, but I'm at a
> loss of who to
> ask the question and thought this would be a good place to
> start.  Our
> target is an MPC8347E PowerQUICC II Pro, and we're using the
> latest kernel
> (2.6.25).  We started this project by building on x86 and doing
> cross-compiling to the powerpc target.  As the project
> progressed and we
> started adding applications we found that we couldn't cross-compile
> postgress among other things.  So we switched to native
> compilation on the
> target.  Problem is, it's extreamly slow.  Now our idea is to get our
> hands on a PowerPC based Mac, load it up with Ubuntu and do
> native builds
> on that.  The question is, which Mac to get?  The concern is
> this: a G5 is
> 64-bit but the 8347E is 32-bit.  If we do our compiles on a G5 is it
> really a 'native' compile or is it a cross-compile and we're
> back in the
> same boat as we were with the x86?  Should we use a G4 instead?
> 
> Thanks for any advice or pointers to other places where I can find
> information. 

We use a dual G5 to do the exact same thing.
We have a compiler buildt on our target board (Freescale 8280), and on
the G5 we make sure that this compiler is being used (by chrooting into
a copy of the filesystem used on the target). 
Then we compile all our apps . 
Only thing we have to do speciial, is to add
--build=powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu --host=powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu to
the ./configure cammand line.