About a week ago I described this problem on comp.os.linux.setup, thinking
my difficulty was generic and largely owing to my own ignorance.  I got
some very generous help and suggestions that finally made me suspect I may
need some specific information from this group.

Here's the relevant bit:

On comp.os.linux.setup Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:

  > But "make mrproper" blew away your .config file: it really srubs out
  > everything.  The order should be
  >
  >   make mrproper
  >   cp [oldconfigfile that basically works] .config
  >   # Make sure that Makefile or the .config settings give you a unique
  >   # kernel name
  >   make    # check for errors
  >   make rpm    # build nice RPM to use for kernel management
  

and I responded:

  It seems not to have scrubbed out the .config file, and now I noticed why:
  when I issued the 'make mrproper' command I got
  
    [/usr/src/kernels/2.6.9-22.0.1.EL-i686]# make mrproper
      CLEAN   .tmp_versions
    scripts/Makefile.clean:10: Documentation/DocBook/Makefile: No such file
                                                               or directory
    make[1]: *** No rule to make target `Documentation/DocBook/Makefile'.
                 Stop.
    make: *** [_mrproper_Documentation/DocBook] Error 2
  
  So 'make mrproper' bombs.  Unfortunately I have no idea how to respond
  to this problem to fix it, and examining Makefile didn't give me a clue.
  So I have two questions:
  
  * What should I do to get past this problem?  and
  
  * Since I didn't delete any Makefiles, why didn't the install procedure
    put the appropriate one where it's expected?


When I asked, to help me with the procedure,

  Also, I've found on the Internet over half a dozen sets of directions
  and HOWTOs on recompiling the kernel, and they all have somewhat diffe-
  rent instructions.  Maybe some are outdated.  What would you recommend
  as a good, up-to-date, reliable reference book accessible by a lay user?

Nico suggested:

  Take a very careful look at the kernel SRPM, to see what RedHat has
  dumped on top of the kernel installation procedure and notes about
  special setups they support.

and also to read the kernel.spec file.  This file seems to be contained
in the kernel 'src' rpm, which on the RedHat site is about 40 MB in size,
and isn't anywhere on the 4 distribution CDs.

Since I have a slow modem connection I don't do 40 MB downloads lightly and
was wondering if just that file was available somewhere on the SL site.
In my /usr/src directory there are two subdirectories: kernels, and redhat,
and the latter seems to be intended for all the source files.  But all of
_its_ subdirs are empty.  Is that as intended, that the installation proce-
dure creates 'redhat' and its subdirs, and leaves them empty?

Thanks for the help.

- Dushan Mitrovich