Hey all,
I'm trying to get my system to the point where I can totally wipe Windows off my hard drive, and, if at all possible, I want to be able to do it by the 8th or so since I'm going on vacation around then. I've got a few goals; I want to compile in support for NTFS/FAT filesystems first and foremost, then get DRM/DRI working so that I can do hardware accelerated 3D (and thereby hopefully play my Windows games on Cedega), and make sure that all of my gadgets (ie camera, iPod) will work with my computer. I figure I can get most of this stuff done if I can just successfully recompile the kernel, but as is obvious, I'm having a bit of trouble with that.

I've read the Newbie Kernel compile guide, as well as the Kernel HOWTO and several other guides several times, but I'm still lost here. Basically, I follow the instructions and I've tried everything I can think of, but every time I've ended up with a kernel that won't support my USB card, ethernet card or sound card. Other than that it works perfectly, but that's not really suitable. Here's an excerpt from boot.log: (I bolded failures...)

Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost syslog: syslogd startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:02 localhost syslog: klogd startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:02 localhost irqbalance: irqbalance startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:02 localhost portmap: portmap startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:02 localhost nfslock: rpc.statd startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:02 localhost random: Initializing random number generator: succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:03 localhost pcmcia: Starting PCMCIA services:
Aug 2 13:57:03 localhost pcmcia: FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358custom/modules.dep: No such file or directory
Aug 2 13:57:03 localhost rc: Starting pcmcia: succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:03 localhost netfs: Mounting other filesystems: succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:03 localhost autofs: automount startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:03 localhost smartd: smartd startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:04 localhost acpid: acpid startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost sysctl: net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0
Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost sysctl: net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1
Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost sysctl: kernel.sysrq = 0
Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost sysctl: kernel.core_uses_pid = 1
Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost network: Setting network parameters: succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost network: Bringing up loopback interface: succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost ifup: interface 'eth0' not found
Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost ifup:
Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost ifup: natsemi device eth0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.
Aug 2 13:57:01 localhost network: Bringing up interface eth0: failed
Aug 2 13:57:07 localhost cups: cupsd startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:08 localhost sshd: succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:08 localhost xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:08 localhost ntpd: failed
Aug 2 13:57:08 localhost ntpd: ntpd startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:08 localhost sendmail: sendmail startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:09 localhost sendmail: sm-client startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:09 localhost gpm: gpm startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:09 localhost crond: crond startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:10 localhost xfs: xfs startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:10 localhost anacron: anacron startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:10 localhost atd: atd startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:10 localhost readahead: Starting background readahead:
Aug 2 13:57:10 localhost rc: Starting readahead: succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:11 localhost messagebus: messagebus startup succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:11 localhost mdmonitor: mdadm succeeded
Aug 2 13:57:12 localhost mdmpd: mdmpd failed

I can't figure out why this is happening - for one thing, I've got pretty much everything under sound installed as a module, so my sound card at least should be support. I've got hotplugging/PNP enabled, and I'm sure I've config'd it for USB and ethernet card support. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the modules aren't being made/installed properly. I noticed that when I run "make modules", it goes for a while - it appears to be working normally - and then the shell window it's running in sort of disappears. I don't get any output from this, and make modules_install appears to work.

EDIT: It turns out the modules weren't being installed properly, so I was sort of right. I adjusted some memory allocation settings in the BIOS, reinstalled the modules and it seems to work. I'm running the new kernel build right now. =)

[Nevermind this post, see the EDIT above]