Mandrake 9.0
kernel 2.4.19-16
NVIDIA_nforce-1.0-0248.mdk90up_2.4.19_16.athlon.rpm
Athlon 1.4GHz
256MB Ram
gForce2 64M

Recently I was compiling my kernel (for learning purposes) and the nvidia driver was not included in my custom kernel. I'd like to know why.
This is what I did:

make xconfig
make dep
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
cp /usr/src/linux/arm/boot/bzImage /boot/my-kernel

and updated lilo....

I solved the problem copying the driver from my old kernel to the location of my new custom kernel and it worked. Later I learned that the problem could be solved withe the /etc/modules.conf file with the "keep" modifier.
Can anybody tell me why this module or driver for nvidia was not added to my custom kernel???
If any of the steps was wrong or not in order please tell me. And also I'd like to compile my kernel for my processor, but I read about many people having problems compiling for Athlon...suggestions??

You did it correctly. The thing is that nvidia driver is not a part of Linux kernel (because of licensing issues), so it's not in the configuration. You need to add it to every kernel you compile.

I've compiled many kernels for Duron/Athlon and they all work correctly. Don't worry, try it.

So, I better download the source rpm's or the tar archives next time....

About the processor stuff...can I safely uncheck all the others processors listed?

As far as I remember you can check only one processor. Compile for Athlon.

THANK YOU..... I GUESS THAT LAST QUESTION SOUND A LITTLE TOO STUPID....