new to redhatlinux:
my configuration:
root / /dev/hda7.
swap swap /dev/hda8.

i built another kernel 2.4.20 for my redhat AS3.

make xconfig
make bzImage
root device is (3,7)
...
...
make modules
make modules_install
make install

when i reboot my pc with new kernel. a strange thing happened,my hard disk should be "hda" now changed to "hde".so i cannot activating swap-devices in /etc/fstab . it showed "cannot found /dev/hda8".
after logged in,it said "Your last session only lasted for less than 10 seconds."
chaged to failsafe mode.i found my root device was changed to /dev/hde7.
so what happened to my new kernel.how to change it.which should i pay more attention when compile the kernel.

This is not correct for building kernels in the Red Hat family, the steps in order are;

make mrproper (or make clean)
make menuconfig (but make xconfig is OK)
make
make modules_install
make install

Did you notice the line root device is (3,7)?? This suggests to me the you may have set the Boot off-board chipsets first support option and need to reverse the boot order on the kernel line when booting (by adding ide=reverse to the line).

A snippet from a kernel .cong file;
#
# IDE chipset support/bugfixes
#
CONFIG_IDE_GENERIC=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD640 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPNP is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y
CONFIG_IDEPCI_SHARE_IRQ=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_OFFBOARD is not set

The last line above is the boot off-board chipsets first support option, if this is set the add this may explain why the change from hda to hde.

i donot think that the key.
first i didnot set the Boot off-board chipsets option .
second i type "ls -l /dev/hda7" in my old linux ,it shows :
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 7 Sep 5 07:44 /dev/hda7
$ Notice the 3, 7 in the middle of that -- that's where the kernel's (3, 7) message comes from.
so in such condition,what shoule i do when i compile my kernel.