I tried to contact kernel.org and my email was returned to me.

PERM_FAILURE: Gmail tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 5.7.1 Content-Policy reject msg: The message contains HTML subpart, therefore we consider it SPAM or Outlook Virus. TEXT/PLAIN is accepted.! We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. Thanks for your continued support.

I sent the email by gmail and I did not add any HTML to it. I resent it and changed the settings to be UTF-8 and it was returned again. I wanted to tell them the suggestion that I had for the README that would make it easier for newbies like me to understand. I was able to build the 2.4.36 kernel after I messed up a few times.

How can I send email to them to give them the suggestions? Can someone else give them the suggestion if I post it?

I read the README for the 2.6.X kernel, and have an idea about how to make it better so that it could be a little bit easier to understand. As it now is, it can be a bit confusing for people who are new to Linux and who are new to building the kernel. Since the README does not seem to change that much between the versions, if it is updated once then it can be helpful for lots of newbies like me.

1) Put the items into clearly marked sections. Three sections at least. One section would be for downloading the kernel, one for building the kernel, and one for patching the kernel. Right now, there are no clear section divisions in the README and it is confusing to know what part is for the patch and what part is for the entire build.

2) Show the commands to use separately for each step. Have a brief section description to clearly separate the steps. When a command is issued, show what directory that command should be used in, and the full path name in your example.

3) Add some comments of things that newbies would not know about, but an experienced user would know about, such as the options for the commands that work for most cases.

4) Add some information about the locations of where files are stored from the make commands, and how it selects the arch directory. For example, if you select a configuration option to use a different processor than i386, such as a pentium 4, is it going to put the image in another directory?

5) Explain about why you need to copy the kernel image into the boot directory. The make install seems to already do that, but it changes the name to something other than bzImage, such as linux-2.4.0

The kernel documentation is intended to contain essential technical information about the kernel. It is not intended as a howto for newbies who want to compile the kernel. You can search on google to find tonnes of guides for that.

As for gmail, make sure the message is in plain text mode (i.e. you do not see the formating toolbar) before sending it.