yes that looks like it, I'm not sure what Libranet's going to use to "install" it, I think debian uses .deb files, is there a software installer on the menu?

should i install the source to the directory you stated in the howto (/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include/linux). Would this prevent me from being able to compile the source for the driver?

sorry... would NOT doing this prevent it from compiling....

No, you want the kernel source in /usr/src/linux-2.4.20, this should be where the "build" symlink in /lib/modules/2.4.20/ points to, if at all possible you should use Libranet's installer so your database of installed packages will be uptodate.

edit:
the file is already in the right place, if there is no installer for it, just cd /usr/src and bunzip2 the kernel source.bz2 file, you may have to create the build symlink yourself, like this: ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.4.20 /lib/modules/2.4.20/build.

ok i found out how to install the kernel source... checked everything (symlink) and all is ok cept for when i try to compile i still get
the part where it says it can't find 'modversion.h' is the part needed by my kernel source, right. It simply isn't in my kernel source. What is this all about and most importantly what do i have to do to get this thing to compile...

I'm thinking the "build" link is wrong.

if you do a "cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.20/include/linux, and then an "ls -l modversions.h", you should see it there. Also, do an ls -l /lib/modules/`uname -r` and see where the build symlink actually points to. If it's wrong, "rm" it and do "ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.4.20/" /lib/modules/2.4.20/build", assuming there is a directory named "linux-2.4.20" under /usr/src.

there is no modversions.h on my system... what is this file and how does it relate. Is libranet really that weird. here is my file tree: in my source directory (/usr/src) i have have a directory of my installed kernel named 'kernel-source-2.4.20'. in it is /include/linux/ but within it there is not a file named 'modversions.h'. What the heck is goin on. and within /lib/'modules/2.4.20/ there is no directory named build. This has totally thrown me off and I have no clue what to do. I know exactly what you are referring to but what is the deal w/ my file system. Maybe i should install slack9 and get back w/ you..... jeez, seems like you are working hard at messing w/ an os that is totally unfamiliar w/ the rest of the distros.

That file is just one of many include files that are part of the kernel source installation, if you were to find a copy of modversions.h and place it in the right location, the problem would simply move to the next #include'd file in the source code. I've heard good things about libranet, so the problem is most likely us. I'm quite familiar with the whole acx100 thing, but not at all with debian or debian based distros. Like you, I'm asking myself how different can it be...one thing I've heard is that libranet is not necessarily aimed at people who want to compile things, apparently it's more for the desktop crowd, maybe this is the explanation, maybe not, either way being debian-based it should be possible to get a proper installation of the kernel source and a symlink to it.

Was there some tool in libranet similar to the tools in redhat or slackware that you used to install the kernel source? Or did you have to do it manually?

In any case, let's use a tool to verify that this file really isn't there, can you cd /usr and then find -name modversions.h, this will scour the entire /usr directory tree for the file.

I used the libranet 'adminmenu' to install the source... I went to libranet's forums and asked around about it. they said to use the 'recompile kernel' tool which untar's the source and creates the appropriate symlink. They told me this installs it. So that is what I did. As for the 'find -name modversions.h', it returned nothing? Any ideas...

I went to libranet's site also and found the same things to be true. I'm having a hard time believing your kernel source is somehow mis-installed, not being familiar with debian, I'm thinking perhaps your version of the find command needs to have -print added to it in order for it to "print" it's findings. I know this must be getting tiresome, but could you run these commands as root:
cd /usr/src
find -name mod*.h -print
there will definitely be some filenames returned which will verify that the find command's syntax is correct, hopefully modversions will show itself.

here's the output on one of my machines running mdk9:
let's see if any of these files show up for you

I tried what you said. It turned up some of the same in yours... but no modversions.h... there is a modsetver.h. what to do?

I'm beginning to wonder what is going on. I'm going to have to do some research on compiling kernel modules for debian, it's hard to believe it's so different from the others. The acx100 source is very well-written in terms of compiling without error across distros, so it's not likely the source or the makefile is at fault here. I picked up debian 3.0 last week but don't yet have it installed on anything, hopefully this weekend, I'm curious what could be so different about it. maybe if you ask specifically about compiling a kernel module in the libranet forum someone will shed some light on this.

one more thing to try, in the acx100 source directory, do a make clean and then make configure, see what errors are returned from make configure, maybe there will be a clue in there.

i did a make clean and it went returned:
make configure doesn't do anything, but when i run make config it returns:

Sorry about that configure vs config stuff, my bad.

It still looks to me like the build symlink is bad, here's how to check it: do a "cd /usr/src && find -name version.h | grep /linux/", if one line is returned showing version.h at the end, then we can assume the build symlink is wrong and should be pointing to the directory in front of version.h in that line that is returned, if nothing is returned then the kernel source is definitely not installed correctly or is installed in some other directory for some reason. If that command returns the one line, then do an "ls -l /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build", (don't substitute "2.4.20" for `uname -r` in that command, the makefile will be using `uname -r`, so you should too) and see which directory the build symlink is pointing to.

ok, I ran "cd /usr/src && find -name version.h | grep /linux/" and it returned one line ("./kernel-source-2.4.20/include/linux/version.h") so, I did a "ls -l /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build" like you said and it returned "ls: /lib/modules/2.4.20/build: no such file or directory"
WTF, this means that for some reason the source tree is messed up right? My tree simply doesn't have a "build" subdirectory. is this where libranet differs slightly?