i have been doing that all along. i just did it again in this order: make mrproper, make clean, (use kernel configurator to generate .config file), make bzImage. and maybe, just MAYBE, i got the same error on the same line that i have gotten everytime before. i really don't know what is up. i can compile other stuff like yahoo messanger and ex-ipupdate and they work fine. i dunno, i am stumped, thanks for the help anyway.

Dont use any Crappy mandrake config tools for this. if you do it by hand, then you know exactly what is going on, it will be easier for you to learn how to do this.

make mrproper
make xconfig or menuconfig
#configure your kernel, using modules where appropriate
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
cp ./System.map /boot/System.map-2.4.x
ln -s /boot/System.map-2.4.x /boot/System.map
cp ./arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.x
# where x is the kernel version you are compiling.

Then edit /etc/lilo with an editor to point to the new kernel and save the file

/sbin/lilo
# this will commit the changes.

thanks, i will try that and let you know how it goes.

thanks, i got my build to work! any suggestions on what kind of parameters i should pass on to the kernal at boot? thanks for your help!