The first concern is creating a development environment. Modern distributions won't do, since they use GNU glibc 2.2 at the time of this writing, and LRP still uses GNU glibc 2.0.
There are several ways to create a suitable environment for compiling programs for use with LRP:
Install a distribution based on GNU glibc 2.0. This is the easiest, though it may seem a waste to install such an old distribution on new hardware.
Install Red Hat 6.x or similar and use their “compatability RPMs” for compiling programs for Red Hat 5.2 (based on GNU glibc 2.0). This is good if you have a distribution which supports RPMs, but building is fraught with perils, as this mingles a GNU glibc 2.1 or 2.2 environment with the GNU glibc 2.0 libraries.
Install any distribution and mount a second, separate installed distribution based on GNU glibc 2.0. This second distribution may be in one of several different locations:
A special subdirectory
Another partition
NFS mount of / from another running system
Be aware that NFS mounting the entire root filesystem from your development system is a very high-risk step. Take extreme measures to secure your system if it is at all accessable to others. Some good steps to take would be:
Use tcpwrappers and /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow to only allow NFS connections from one host.
Allow mounting of / (from /etc/exports) by only one host.
Turn on logging as much is practical: log every NFS connection.
Another good step is to isolate the machine from the rest of the network. There are several ways to do this:
Use a cross-over network cable to connect the development machine directly to the compile machine.
Connect both machines to a hub — by themselves.
In both cases, turn off IP forwarding on the compile machine so that other systems can't access the development machine.
Suitable distributions for LRP development — which are based on GNU glibc 2.0 — include (but aren't necessarily limited to):
Red Hat 5.2
Linux Mandrake 5.3
Debian 2.1 (Slink)
The new LEAF distributions are going towards glibc 2.1; to develop for glibc 2.1, use one of the following distributions:
Red Hat 6.x
Linux Mandrake 7.x
It is also a good idea to upgrade the running kernel of the development environment to one that matches the kernel being used in your developmental LRP image. For LRP, this likely would be 2.0.36 or 2.2.16. For Eigerstein, the kernel is probably Linux 2.2.15 or 2.2.16. For Oxygen, the proper kernel should be Linux 2.2.18 or 2.2.19. To find which kernel you are using, do one of these:
uname -a
...or...
cat /proc/sys/kernel/osrelease
The kernel will be more important for compiling programs that tie closely to the kernel (such as lcap and others). If the program being compiled isn't tied to the kernel, then matching kernel versions becomes less important.