Hey, I have the laptop described in the title, and the thermal sensor on the motherboard is burned out. I don't want to pay the $200 to fix it, so I have previously used i8k to just turn on my fan and leave it on. Now, I am running Debian Sarge and when I try to compile I8k, I get along fine until I enter:
make module

This is supposed to make i8k.o, a module you can add to the kernel to get the file /proc/i8k to monitor the Dell BIOS status. I recieve this when I try to compile it:

debian: /home/arew/i8kutils-1.27# make module
make -C /lib/modules/' uname -r' /build M=/home/arew/i8kutils-1.27 modules
make: *** /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-386/build: No such file or directory. Stop.
make: *** [i8k.ko] Error 2

I have no idea what this means other than that the file build is not where the script is looking. Is there anyone who can help me out? Any help you could provide would be great because I can't use a burned out laptop, and there appears to me no other easy and free way to ventilate it.

Isn't that module already available in the kernel? I know it is on the 2.6 kernel for Sarge, and it was in previous 2.4 series on previous releases.

Well, yes it should be in /boot/(kernelversion/kernel/drivers/char/i8k.o, but its not there and all my attempts to recompile the kernel with it have not worked. My kernel is 2.4.27 (I guess Sarge puts on a kernel that fits your system?). Any help would be appreciated.

That particular module should already live on your system at:
/lib/modules/<kernel-version>/kernel/drivers/char/
For instance, in the woody kernel, it was here:

/lib/modules/2.4.18-bf2.4/kernel/drivers/char

You can also verify by checking the kernel config (/boot/config-<kernel-version>) and grepping for I8K.
Using the woody kernel as an example again:

$ cat /boot/config-2.4.18-bf2.4 |grep I8K
CONFIG_I8K=m

You can easily insert and remove modules using the modconf utility.

I don't have a machine here locally that runs the default 2.4 kernel for Sarge to check with for sure, but I'm almost positive it should already have that module compiled in.

Edit:
Checking here shows that it doesnt' seem to be compiled into the default 386 kernel, but perhaps you could install the 686 kernel instead -- it is in there already.

Well, I installed the 686 kernel, and it works great. Thanks for your help!