There is a package called bin86 in the devel area which contains the as86 and ld86 binaries, which are necessary for kernel-compilation. Once you have these, the compilation should proceed smoothly.
I don't know if this is properly a bug in the distribution, though, because you don't need the x86 assembler for compiling on, say, a PowerPc. But I definitely agree with you that somewhere there should be a x86 README or something that makes it easier to figure this out. >Ideally, however, I would have liked to compile a kernel which supported >the PS/2 mouse, as well as some other features of the GATEWAY 2000, such >as APM, and use that. I downloaded and installed the kernel source >package from 1.1.3, configured it, and tried to make the image by doing > ./debian.rules > >This did not work, however - the make failed (after the best part of an >hour had elapsed) when it was unable to find "as86". I could not find >as86 anywhere on my system, and so was stuck. > >Am I doing something wrong, or is it the case that the kernel-source >package is flawed ? >
