Compiling the kernel

[joebosak@uku.co.uk]

Newbie, sort of. 

I want to change the kernel on my system - some bits are not needed, other 
bits not in there are now required.  My stock kernel is 2.4.18-bf2.4. 

I've downloaded 2.6.9 from www.kernel.org, and managed to compile a few 
kernels, some even boot but none does what I want. One thing I need to know 
is how to get modules to compile... there doesn't seem to be any source code 
on my system except for pcmcia-cs (which I downloaded, and which gives an 
error message during compilation).  Where do I get this from? 

I'm trying to get a kernel for 486 laptop that contains pcmcia and wireless 
(for a WPC11 v3 card).  Also I want to set up the system as a firewall so I 
want IP masquerading etc. 

Finally, I have tried loading the 2.4.18-bf2.4 configuration file, as a 
starting point, but this gives loads of error messages about things not 
being found.  So another question would be - would I be better off using 
something like 2.4.21? 


Any advice appreciated! 

- Joe