When I run make (according to this guide - www.debianuserforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=101 ) I get the following error, around a million times (hasn't stopped yet); note: the system is on hda1.. and is there any way to even exit this command as I'm pretty sure it will go on forever (and persists through a forced reboot!)

It has nothing much to do with the kernel compile, but a lot to do with the file system. Boot from e.g. a livecd and run fsck on all partitions - do not fsck mounted partitions.

It persists because it's usually stderr telling you that the disk is corrupt.

the man command is not found. what does the man part do? ironically, I had just ran fsck on /dev/hda1 right before this error came up. although running it again now has brought up errors.

edit: seems to be building ok now...

The standard response to that is

"man" should open a man (manual) page for the referenced program if it's not being found then there is probably something wrong with your user path. Try running man as root, if that doesn't work, then we may have a missing man...

You should not fsck a mounted partition... it's better to boot from a livecd and do it from there. That may be the source of your trouble in fact...

I did do the original fsck from a livecd; i wasn't going to ignore the 'DOING THIS *WILL* F UP YOUR SYSTEM' warning

I was running 'man' as root, it is not there i suppose. Anyway, it all worked.

Follow up ? about kernel building; is it OK to build the kernel in future witout running the command; My understanding is that this means every module is rebuilt (instead of just those that are changed?), which takes a *looooooooong* time (especially running on this machine which is old).

And also; how do i set the new kernel as default in grub, and remove others?

If you ask me, use this (long version version)
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=36525
or this (short version)
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=212790#p212790
but ignore "make oldconfig" (the next post will tell the why).

To make your compilation more fast try "make localmodconfig" (or perhaps not, it might end in a lot of fidding, like in doing it again and again until it works. For me it works).

You kernel should/could be set to default automatically.
Else edit /etc/default/grub -> GRUB_DEFAULT=0 and change 0 to whatever integer fits (run update-grub after you edited).

PS: if you can't use "man" something is seriously wrong.

It seems the latest kernel build was set to default. How do i remove the others i don't want?

Just like any other package, with apt-get/aptitude/synaptic/etc
ls /boot
and then, for example:
apt-get -s remove --purge linux-image-2.6.38-2-686
apt-get -s remove --purge linux-headers-2.6.38-2-686
and make sure its remove from /lib/modules.

I would simply leave it.

try "make localmodconfig" where? when??

AFAICT the guide is just the same as the one i linked except it uses a non-root user instead of using the fakeroot. (NB i only have root user currently)

The how-to you link to uses a kernel source from kernel.org, the other one uses a debianized kernel source from the start
(hence they differ).
If that is what you want it is fine, but to me the other how-to works and is more straight forward (especially the short version, which you will also find in the discussion of the how-to you linked to).

You use "make localmodconfig" at the very beginning. At forums.debian.net there is a thread about it, which explains how exactly
(without checking much i would say between "cp" and "make menuconfig"; make sure all devices you use are plugged)

If you ain't got a user, create one.

I see. Well i have my kernel source already (FWIW; from voyage, as i'm using that, which explains the lack of man etc.. definitely going to put that in my profile now), so it was only from 'make-kpkg (--rootcmd fakeroot) clean' onwards that i was refering to. Will have a look into the localmodconfig more next time i rebuild (just done it now).

Have you tried the the new beta release of 0.8.0? That will have the 3.0 kernel and be based on Debian 6.0.3. That should be very stable when done.