I have had nothing but trouble from kernel RPM files.
Use the source.
Download your kernel from
www.kernel.org, and do the following:
For .tar.gz files:
cd /usr/src
tar -zxpvf /wherever/you/downloaded/it/linux-2.4.18.tar.gz
mv linux linux-2.4.18
ln -s linux-2.4.18 linux
cd linux
make xconfig
cp .config KERNEL-CONFIG-FILE-TO-KEEP
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
For .tar.bz2 files, the only thing that changes is:
tar -jxpvf /wherever/you/downloaded/it/linux-2.4.18.tar.bz2
Basically, this is a quick revision of
The Kernel HOWTO, which I would seriously suggest you read
thoroughly.