[ale] keep losing vfat support after compiling, depping, moving kernel in

[hvarela]

I recently went "backwards-compatible" and bought an AWE 64 for Linux,
so I decided to try sndconfig to help set it up.
I got some bizarre message saying I can't use sndconfig to set up
anything because the kernel did not support it?
I finally just decided to recompile the kernel after checking menuconfig
(yep, it was there).
After some initial trouble with setting the module dependencies, I
managed to get a bootable, non-error reporting Redhat 5.2 up and
running, EXCEPT
I can't mount VFAT partitions, as somehow, this filesystem support
disappeared after I recompiled.
I am pretty sure this has something to do with modules not being found
or loaded, but I get no such messages at boot-up, and now I am totally
lost as to why I can't get dos, or vfat support!!!
I broke down and reinstalled RedHat 5.2 (and lost all my beautiful work
with kde and other fun stuff), but I still get that message everytime I
try to mount a FAT32 partition...
I guess my question is whether or not I am handling loadable modules
right during/after compiling a custom kernel.
What I try to do is recompile the kernel to my liking, make dep; make
clean, make zImage, then make sure to make modules;make modules_install,
also make sure the directory where the /lib/modules gets created is the
SAME name as the directory already there (2.0.36 gets created, but there
is already a 2.0.36-0.7 there with a symbolic link called "preferred" to
2.0.36-0.7 -- I just mv 2.0.36 to 2.0.36-0.7 and that seems to work)
Everything else pretty much stays the same, I don't remove the symbolic
links, even in /boot, zImage gets copied onto vmlnuz-2.0.36-0.7 and lilo
still boots that kernel.
What am I doing wrong?
BTW, I think the APM power-off kernel option is pretty coool!
Now if I could only get the vfat support...


--
end

BEST PLACE TO START:
http://www.whatis.com

Tired of Windoh!s?, try Linux:
http://www.cheapbytes.com

Wanna tweak that USR modem?
http://www.usr.com/home/online/manuals/5000217.htm

TO MAKE A NEW BOOT DISK WITH CD ROM DRIVERS:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Haven/6446/freshstart.html