can smeone please tell me how to make config programs understand that i have a gcc cc and ccl compiler installed. every time i try to use a configure script, it tells me that there was no gcc, cc, or ccl compiler located in your path, yet, all of the above are installed, in the path, and in the right location. this is the third program to report this error. what do i need to do to fix this problem?

Do you have gcc-config installed and does gcc-config -B point to the location of your gcc binary files?

not sure. locate gcc-config does not reveal anything... neither does locate gcc | grep config

the following is an output of locate gcc :

/usr/bin/gcc296
/usr/bin/i386-redhat-linux7-gcc
/usr/lib/gcc-lib
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux/3.2.2
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux/3.2.2/tradcpp0
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux/3.2.2/cpp0
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/collect2
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/cc1
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/crtbegin.o
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/cpp0
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/iso646.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/README
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/float.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/limits.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/proto.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/stdarg.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/stdbool.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/stddef.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/syslimits.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/varargs.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/cxxabi.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/exception
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/new
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/new.h
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/include/typeinfo
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/crtbeginS.o
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/crtend.o
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/crtendS.o
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/libstdc++.so
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/libgcc.a
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/specs
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/tradcpp0
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/cc1plus
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/libstdc++.a
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/wchar-stdc++
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/wchar-stdc++/libstdc++-2.10.0-wchar-stub.so
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/wchar-stdc++/libstdc++.so
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux7/2.96/libstdc++-2.10.0-stub.so
/usr/lib/openoffice/program/libcppuhelper3gcc3.so
/usr/lib/openoffice/program/libgcc3_uno.so
/usr/lib/openoffice/program/libsalhelper3gcc3.so
/usr/lib/openoffice/program/libstlport_gcc.so
/usr/lib/openoffice/program/libucbhelper1gcc3.so
/usr/lib/openoffice/program/libvos2gcc3.so
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/ChangeLog.CPP
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/ChangeLog
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/ChangeLog.0
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/ChangeLog.1
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/ChangeLog.2
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/ChangeLog.3
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.Portability
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/ChangeLog.lib
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/FSFChangeLog
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/FSFChangeLog.10
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/FSFChangeLog.11
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README-bugs
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README-fixinc
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.ACORN
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.ALTOS
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.APOLLO
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.AVR
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.C4X
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.DWARF
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.FRESCO
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.NS32K
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.RS6000
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.TRAD
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.X11
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-7.3/README.gnat
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-c++-7.3
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-c++-7.3/ChangeLog.egcs
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-c++-7.3/ChangeLog
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-c++-7.3/ChangeLog.1
/usr/share/doc/compat-gcc-c++-7.3/ChangeLog.2
/usr/share/ghostscript/Resource/CMap/HKgccs-B5-H
/usr/share/ghostscript/Resource/CMap/HKgccs-B5-V
/usr/share/ghostscript/Resource/ac14/CMap/HKgccs-B5-H
/usr/share/ghostscript/Resource/ac14/CMap/HKgccs-B5-V
/usr/share/xpdf/chinese-traditional/CMap/HKgccs-B5-H
/usr/share/xpdf/chinese-traditional/CMap/HKgccs-B5-V
/lib/libgcc_s-3.2.2-20030225.so.1
/lib/libgcc_s.so.1

where do i go from here?

whats the output of :
maybe these configure scripts are simply just looking for "gcc" and maybe you don't have a symlink to gcc in there, which might be all you need ...

-rwxr-xr-x 2 root root 81864 Feb 11 2003 /usr/bin/gcc296

i further made a link to it. it didn't do anything.