modules not loaded after recompiling kernel

[Wei Wang <ww220@cam.ac.uk>]

hi, all,

I just installed Woody 3.0r1 from CD with kernel 2.4.18-bf2.4. I downloaded 
kernel 2.4.20 from kernel.org and recompiled it. 
(I did make clean, mrproper, make menuconfig, make dep, bzImage, modules, modules_install)
Now when I boot into the new kernel, first I got this in /var/log/syslog:

May 15 10:28:57 china kernel: Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.4.20third
May 15 10:28:57 china kernel: Loaded 16610 symbols from /boot/System.map-2.4.20third.
May 15 10:28:57 china kernel: Symbols match kernel version 2.4.20.
May 15 10:28:57 china kernel: No module symbols loaded.

Whereas during the booting of the kernel 2.4.18 from the CD installation I have this in syslog:

May 15 10:56:42 china kernel: Loaded 159 symbols from 6 modules.

Then lsmod in kernel 2.4.20 boot also gives nothing at all. 

In kernel 2.4.18 boot, lsmod gives:
iptable_filter          1728   0 (autoclean) (unused)
ip_tables              10432   1 [iptable_filter]
agpgart                29824   3 (autoclean)
ide_cs                  3424   1
ds                      6624   2 [ide_cs]
i82365                 22416   2
pcmcia_core            41408   0 [ide_cs ds i82365]
eepro100               17264   1
keybdev                 1664   0 (unused)
usbkbd                  2848   0 (unused)
input                   3072   0 [keybdev usbkbd]
usb-uhci               20708   0 (unused)
usbcore                48032   0 [usbkbd usb-uhci]


It would be too much pain to dump my whole /usr/src/linux/.config here. So I'll just pick 
some:

#
# Networking options
#
CONFIG_PACKET=y
# CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP is not set
CONFIG_NETLINK_DEV=m
# CONFIG_NETFILTER is not set
# CONFIG_FILTER is not set
CONFIG_UNIX=y 
CONFIG_INET=y
CONFIG_IP_MULTICAST=y

#
# IEEE 1394 (FireWire) support (EXPERIMENTAL)
#
CONFIG_IEEE1394=m
CONFIG_IEEE1394_OHCI1394=m
CONFIG_IEEE1394_VIDEO1394=m
CONFIG_IEEE1394_SBP2=m

CONFIG_IEEE1394_ETH1394=m
CONFIG_IEEE1394_DV1394=m
CONFIG_IEEE1394_RAWIO=m
CONFIG_NETDEVICES=y

#
# Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)
#
CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET=y
CONFIG_NET_PCI=y
CONFIG_EEPRO100=y


I didn't put Ethernet as M. Is it compulsory to put it as M?




I was reading Kernel HOWTO but it doesn't say much about
what to choose and what everything means in make menuconfig.
So is there any document that explains the options in makemenuconfig?
For example, Which configuration is for ip_table?

Also since the kernel 2.4.18 from CD installation works fine in everything,
I wonder how I can see the configuration of this binary kernel that I'm running in?
Is it's .config file still somewhere in the system? I guess if I could have a look at 
it, I could copy most of it to my new kernel configuration. 

I apologize for the long email and silly questions with my 2-day experience with Debian.

Wei Wang