I've been searching Google for a while now, and I've seen similar error messages, but none specifically related to kernel compilation.

I recently switched to Debian Woody stable from Mandrake 9.1 (very satisfied so far). Anyway, I figured I would try to compile my first kernel. I DLed 2.4.21 source from kernel.org, ran "make menuconfig," and I read just about every help file in menuconfig.

I am confident with my kernel and module selections, because I can boot into the kernel, but I don't seem to have network support. Applicable menuconfig selections are:

---- NETWORK DEVICE SUPPORT -----[*] Network Device Support
[M] Dummy net driver support

---- Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) ----[*] EISA, VLB, PCI and On board controllers
<*> RealTek RTL-8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter Support ... using D-Link DFE-530TX+ NIC, providing 8139too driver (note: this driver worked under MDK 9.1)

---- NETWORKING OPTIONS ----
<*> Packet socket
<*> Unix domain sockets[*] TCP/IP Networking[*] IP: Multicasting[*] IP: kernel level autoconfiguration[*] IP: DHCP support ... I have a dynamic IP with my ISP

I tried "lynx www.google.com" and got:
"Unable to access document!
can't access startfile
can't access file `file://localhost/home/USER/www.google.com"
as well as the "also trying google.org *.net" etc.

I would like to get network support for my new kernel so I can proceed to install X and KDE. Help is appreciated. Thanks!

oh yes, and

# ping www.yahoo.com

returns "unknown host www.yahoo.com" Maybe this extra info will help.

dns isnt working

/etc/resolv.conf

try pinging an IP adress like:

64.179.4.146

If that works and hostnames do not then I would agree it's DNS since it searched on your local system for the host.

no, it does not work:

# ping 64.179.4.146
ping: sendto: Network is unreachable

/etc/resolv.conf works in the 2.4.18bf2.4 kernel, but not in my compiled 2.4.21 kernel. I made sure to compile DHCP (not as module), so I have no idea what is wrong.

I re-compiled the same kernel, same options as above, but this time I added socket filtering, rebooted, and now I can ping, browse the web, etc. by domain name (e.g. www.linuxquestions.org) or number (e.g. 64.179.4.146). Thanks for your help.

Np. Glad to hear you got it working. Woulda tried to help more but I went swimming, heh.