Why, after using

make xconfig (and going through)
make dep
make clean
make bzImage

I get this error during the bzImage part:

make[2]: *** [ksyms.o] Error 1
make[2]: leaving directory '/usr/src/linux/2.4.21/kernel'
make[1]: *** [first_rule] Error 2
make[1]: leaving directory '/usr/src/linux/2.4.21/kernel'
make : *** [_dir_kernel] Error 2

I also get a lot of "warning this is the location of the previous definition" warnings during the bzImage process

I downloaded my kernel source from kernel.org as a bz2 file,
unark'd it to my /usr/src/, and did the above.

did you first do a make mrproper? most downloaded sources arnt very clean to start with.

i reccomend

make mrproper
make menuconfig
make dep
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install