patching kernel for PPPoA support
 

Okay, if any of you have seen my previous messages outlining all my difficulties and such, you can safely ignore them. They've all been resolved and now I'm on to bigger and better problems. ;)

I am now running Mandrake 8.1, kernel 2.4.8, and am trying to set it up for Alcatel SpeedTouch USB support so I can use my DSL. I keep getting errors when trying to apply the patch to the kernel that will add PPPoA support. I downloaded the proper patch file, and am using the instructions found at http://linux-usb.sourceforge.net/SpeedTouch/howto.html . When I type in the command to patch the kernel (patch -p1 -s -E < /usr/src/linux/pppoatm-1) I get multiple errors to the effect of "Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected!" And then I'm asked if I want to apply the patch anyway.

Now, I'm not entirely stupid so I think I understand that it's telling me there's no need to apply the patch because the things the patch is attempting to add have already been included. But when I run make menuconfig and look for the options that this patch is supposed to add, they're not there. :(

First of all, does any of this make any sense, and secondly, how can I fix it? Thanks!

Mandrake 8.1 has the patch already. Theoretically, you just need the mgmt.o from alcatel and it works. Mine didn't, so back to RH7.
Jim