errors running make-kpkg on 2.4.14 kernel (unstable)

[Daniel Farnsworth Teichert <danielt@ee.byu.edu>]

I'm running Debian unstable with the 2.4.12 kernel currently,
and have been trying to make a custom kernel package of the
2.4.14 kernel to use to upgrade (and for installation elsewhere).
I used the make-kpkg command provided by the Debian package
kernel-package to make the kernel I'm using now, and all went
well--but now (that was several weeks, and upgrades, ago) when
I try to run make-kpkg clean or make-kpkg --revision=...
kernel_image, I get a bunch of errors like this (and no kernel):

unknown Debian architecture linux, you must specify GNU system
type, too at /usr/bin/dpkg-architecture line 193.

(I wrapped it in the middle, for your viewing enjoyment).

Any ideas? I consider myself a semi-newbie, so I may be missing
something silly here. I took a look at dpkg-architecture, and
tried running it with the -t and/or -a options with various
combinations of i386, linux, i386-linux, etc.; but either that's
not the right avenue, or I missed the right combo.

Anyway, thanks in advance.

  --Daniel