Okay, I have made some progress, but have not met with success yet. Per the suggestion in the forum, the kernel source I am using is linux-2.4.20.tar.bz2. Although, I'm not sure if I'm missing something, because when I type uname -a the system reports

Linux wally 2.4.20-xfs #1 SMP Mit Jan 29 18:47:59 CET 2003 i686 VIA Samuel 2 CentaurHauls GNU/Linux

I see that Knoppix 3.1/2 is 2.4.20-xfs and my kernel source is 2.4.20.

Next I untarred the contents into /usr/src/ and recreated the symlink /usr/src/linux to point to this directory. I also had to recreate the symlink /lib/modules/2.4.20-xfs/build to point
to this new directory to proceed without errors (can't find module XXX).

Next, I ran makemenuconfig and compiled the kernel and did the requisite make "dep" afterwards to allow the system to recognize the new kernel source.

I was then able start compiling without bombing out right away. I ran autoconf with no errors, but when I when to run ./configure, it appear to run and compiled, but noted the following:

checking for kernel includes directory... yes
(/lib/modules/2.4.20-xfs/build/include)checking that running and kernel source
versions match... noconfigure: WARNING: Kernel source version 2.4.20 does not
match running version. This kernel module may not work correctly...

Any suggestions on where I may have gone wrong?

Thanks for all the help so far...

~paul