Cross-compilation environment-tips-recipe for Raspberry Pi from AMD64/Linux?

[cdev]

What is a working current best-practices for compiling software and especially kernels for Raspberry Pi (current Raspbian on current or older HW) using Linux on AMD64 as the build platform, using gcc?

I would like to be able to rebuild a minimal kernel without all the extras that also supports the use of a GPIO pulse for timing. On my older Pis building a kernel takes a really long time, it should only take a few minutes on my desktop.

None of the instructions I have found online and tried have worked for me!

[tyrel]

Have you tried the instructions from the official documentation (https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/kernel/building.md)?
What doesn't work exactly?

[cdev]

This time around, newest everything, totally stock kernel, exactly as downloaded, it worked.