problem compiling kernel for installing alcatel driver
 

i've been provided with a dsl (alcatel speedtouch usb 330) connection for
networking. i've installed fedora core 2.0 (kernel 2.6.5-1.358). after
loads of effort in trying to install the drivers for the device i finally
found a straight forward method of doing this. but this method applies to
kernel 2.4.25. now i've got kernel 2.5.35. but let me clarify the reason
why i'm installing on a diff kernel than the one provided to me. i'm doing
this because i'm not sure if tampering with my kernel settings is a good
thing to do at this stage. so now i'm into kernel installation. now i
copied the settings from my the config for my existing kernel to the new
kernel that i'm trying to install (i "didnot" copy the config file, i made
the settings manually!). now i did the following after saving the kernel
configurations :
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
after several mins and loads of verbose stuff, that i've not been able to
understand properly, i get the following error :

echo ' Generating build number'
Generating build number
. scripts/mkversion > .tmpversion
mv -f .tmpversion .version
make -C init
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.5.35/init'
Generating /usr/src/linux-2.5.35/include/linux/compile.h (unchanged)
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.5.35/init'
ld -m elf_i386 -T arch/i386/vmlinux.lds.s -e stext
arch/i386/kernel/head.o arch/i386/kernel/init_task.o init/init.o
--start-group arch/i386/kernel/kernel.o arch/i386/mm/mm.o
kernel/kernel.o mm/mm.o fs/fs.o ipc/ipc.o security/built-in.o
/usr/src/linux-2.5.35/arch/i386/lib/lib.a lib/lib.a
/usr/src/linux-2.5.35/arch/i386/lib/lib.a drivers/built-in.o
sound/sound.o arch/i386/pci/pci.o net/network.o --end-group -o vmlinux
fs/fs.o(.text+0xbada): In function `de_thread':
: undefined reference to `wait_task_inactive'
make: *** [vmlinux] Error 1

please suggest how i can handle this error.

Well first thing, the 2.5 kernel series was the development series used to develop the current 2.6 kernel. Why don't you build a 2.6 kernel. The speedtouch works for me on Fedora Core 2, I have it installed on another partition. Like you I had to recompile the kernel as it didn't have atm enabled in the kernel, though I think I read somewhere that a kernel module is available as an .rpm . As for your problems compiling the kernel, for a 2.6 kernel you don't do make dep, make clean or make bzImage, so that may be the problem. After you've done make menuconfig you do make and then make modules_install and then copy bzImage and System.map to boot. This page has stuff about the speedtouch on core 2 http://www.4p8.com/eric.brasseur/fc2...touch_usb.html and so does this http://grumz.dyndns.org/ADSL_FC2/ Good luck

yea I'm not sure i would go back to 2.4 on a system build with 2.6
and certainly no reson to use 2.5 ??
The module init tools are different for 2.4 than 2.6
so if you go back these need to be rolled back as well
also your /etc/modprobe.conf file will have to be converted to the old 2.4 name and format
also the new 2.6 systems are built with a glibc compiled against the new
2.6 user space kernel headers and this also may have reverse compatability problems with 2.4
though I'm not sure....

i agree with what was said before -- use 2.6.x
you can use exactly the kernel you start with just when you recompile set the variable in the top level Makefile
EXTRAVERSION=
then you won't mess up you current kernel at all