Alright, well, i finished installing Fedora Core 2 on my main, and am kinda diving straight into the whole learning linux thing. I figured, how better to start than to compile a kernel, and use it? (2.6.8.1) I downloaded the sources, and went to do a make config, when i realized just how long that was going to take. So I found I could do a make oldconfig. Seemed like a good idea, but i'm wondering, is it possible to change one of the settings, and not have to do the whole thing again? Anyone have any tips on compiling kernels? or any tips on kernels in general? Very new to the whole thing... I can get around in linux, but im trying to get deeper into it..

Edit: Thought of a few more questions... What do I do with the kernel image (where does it go)? Does that path change per distro? or is it constant?
Where do the compiled modules go?
How do I go about adding it to grub?

You will always (on a new build) need to compile the whole thing again. After you've done that once (assuming you've not done make clean or make mrproper) if will assume the entire kernel except for what you have changed. I always recommend making small changes, and keeping your .config backed up in your ~ dir, that way you can alwyas copy the ~/.config to the current /usr/src/linux and start from where you were.

gotcha, I actually found a decent tutorial that suggested the use of make menuconfig, which makes everything a bit easier =P
Running through it now =P

why is it that make modules takes like 3-4x longer than make bzImage?

Don't worry, the best part is that when you alter your config again and get rid of or add a module, there's a good change you won't have to recompile it all again. The answer though, is probably that you had more modules, or they were way bigger.

The other aspect is the kernel you are using will not let you burn cd's at this point in time as a normal user. I know this cause I use it. My suggestion go back 2.6.7 and if you burn stuff burn it in that. Using k3b or something.

As far as the cdrecord problem with the 2.6.8 kernels: A patch is expected shortly, but is not contained in 2.6.8.1. There is, however, a patch available on Con Kolivas' page (he's the author of the -ck kernel patchset) that reverts the patch in the 2.6.8 sourcetree that broke this function (seems like one of those situations where a patch to fix something broke something else, occurred somewhere in the 2.6.8 RC stages, from what I can tell). If your distribution has not yet recompiled their available kernel to include this patch and offer a revised kernel in their repositories (Gentoo, for example, has, and it seems to work), or you use vanilla kernels from www.kernel.org, you can patch it yourself.

Go to the url linked above, and follow the "Take me to all the 2.6 patches" link, then browse to /2.6.8.1/2.6.8.1-ck3/split-out/ and get cddvd-cmdfilter-drop.patch. Patch your kernel (try man patch for more information, or Google for a How-to), and recompile it... not sure if you have to reinstall cdrecord and K3b, as I'm reinstalling atm so I just patched my kernel before installing them the first time, but I suspect not.

Alternatively, one could just su to root before running K3b. This is not recommended, however (although I don't know why).