boot disk error

[john gennard <joney@clara.co.uk>]

I run Woody (3.0 r1), and always boot from a floppy
and normally clear out /usr/src after compiling
kernels and producing a boot floppy.

Have just compiled 2.4.21 so that I can compile an
nvidia module. I've probably compiled my own kernel
over 20 times (using make-kpkg) and never had any
difficulty booting.

This time, however, I can't boot and get the error:-

---------------

Loading ..............

Uncompressing Linux  

(some activity), then

invalid compressed format (err=1)

---- System halted

---------------

I recompiled using a fresh .tar.bz2 and
new freshly formatted floppy. The result is
the same.

Is there a change between 2.4.21 and 2.4.20
that causes the progam to prepare the floppy
differently?

Can anyone help please.

John.