Yes, here's what I did. (followed the kernel upgrade steps from About.com) - after downloading and unpacking the new kernel.

1. "make menuconfig"
2. "make dep"
3. "make clean"
4. "make bzImage"
5. "make modules"
6. "make modules_install"

Maybe I missed something in the first step, menuconfig?

A side note. I downloaded and compiled the BCM5700 driver from Broadcom's web site. Now my network cards (seem) to work. However I'm concerned about a lack of modules and some error messages during boot. also, some simple commands that I used to use, such as "ifconfig" for one, don't work any more.

I must be doing something wrong?

That's certainly strange. The only reason I can think that no modules were installed is that you didn't select any in the configuration process. If you go to the top level kernel source directory and do

grep '=m' .config

you should get a list of all modules to be compiled/installed. Use

grep TIGON .config

to see your selection for the network driver.

grep "=m" .config results:
CONFIG_DUMMY=m

Maybe I chose to have all the modules built in? Does that even make sense?

Is it too late to re-run the kernel config? How do I erase everything and start over?

And If I start over, will my regular commands like ifconfig work?

Well grep '=y' will tell you what you have compiled in. Main reason to have modular kernel is that you have flexibility to load/unload modules and try different things.

Maybe you never got into the sublevels of 'menuconfig'. Have you looked at any tutorials on kernel compilation? There are plenty around. Just google 'kernel' 'menuconfig' 'tutorial' and any other likely words to find one at the right level. Unfortunately the 'official' Kernel HOWTO seem well out of date. Also some things have changed 2.4 -> 2.6 and most people will be looking at 2.6.

When you boot your old kernel do you have a file /proc/config.gz? If so that is a compressed copy of your old kernel config which you can use as a basis of a new one.

There are really too many unknowns to figure out exactly what you need step by step. The other possiblity is to see if MDK supply a more up-to-date kernel package, which would save you the trouble.

Thanks,

I read some howtos and even printed one off and followed it as I was doing it so I thought I knew what I was doing.

Most kernel upgrade stuff I found was for major upgrades like 2.2 -> 2.4 or 2.4 -> 2.6.

I'm just doing 2.4 to a later 2.4. I figured it would be similar to a 2.2 -> 2.4 though.

Sadly, I don't have a /proc/config.gz, that probably would have helped.

So... what I'd like to do is try again. So how do I uninstall the newer kernel so I can try over?

You can just do the same steps again and overwrite the previous version. It's also possible to add an extre version number or tag each time so you keep the previous versions, but until you have something that works I wouldn't bother. Main thing is to make sure you don't overwrite your original working version. Maybe make a backup copy you can restore with a rescue disk.