Kernel compilation failure

[Gilles <gilles@harfang.homelinux.org>]

Hello.

The first time I compiled the kernel on this new machine, it went
fine.  But now, the compilation fails with an error like:

 [...]
   CC      drivers/char/rtc.mod.o
   CC      drivers/char/watchdog/softdog.mod.o
 make[2]: *** [drivers/char/rtc.mod.o] Error 139
 make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
 make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
 make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/eran/system/kernel/source/linux-source-2.6.12'
 make: *** [stamp-build] Error 2

I've tried several kernel versions, debian source and vanilla.  The
error seems to always occur after this status message:

 Building modules, stage 2.
 MODPOST
 [...]

Several modules pass the stage then there is an error. But each time for
a different module (there was "cast6", "md4", "ppp_deflate", "rtc"...)!

[Then sometimes the compilation of the kernel completes but the fails
for the "nvidia" external modules (but this is for another thread...).]

Also there is the following warning at the start of the process:

 dpkg-architecture: warning: Unknown gcc system type x86_64-linux-gnu, falling back to default (native compilation)

Is this normal?  I remember that I recently tried to install the
"binutils-multiarch" package (which I removed in the meantime). 
Could it be related to the problems I'm experiencing?


Best regards,
Gilles