[plug] Kernel build problems

[nofixed]

I am not finding building a kernel under debian 'a snap'.
My first attempt at building a kernel (2.4.26) has not been a raging
success.  It has taken several tries to get this far.  See end of
message for results.

15:18:25$ make dep > jeh.dep.lst
md5sum: MD5 check failed for 'cert.c'
md5sum: MD5 check failed for 'hfc_pci.c'
md5sum: can't open hfc_pci.
md5sum: can't open hfc_pci
15:18:46$ make bzImage > jeh.bzImage.lst
dnsdomainname: Host name lookup failure
{standard input}: Assembler messages:
{standard input}:1071: Warning: indirect lcall without `*'
   (9 similar lines deleted)
bbootsect.s: Assembler messages:
bbootsect.s:258: Warning: indirect lcall without `*'
bsetup.s: Assembler messages:
bsetup.s:1829: Warning: indirect lcall without `*'

Root device is (3, 72)

Boot sector 512 bytes.
Setup is 4652 bytes.
System is 598 kB
15:21:00$ make modules > jeh.modules.lst
i2o_block.c:510: warning: `i2ob_flush' defined but not used
inode.c: In function `isofs_read_inode':
inode.c:1151: warning: unused variable `i'
15:24:04$ su

# make modules_install >> jeh.modules.lst
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/fs/binfmt_elf.o
depmod: 	put_files_struct
depmod: 	steal_locks
make: *** [_modinst_post] Error 1
# 


# /etc/lilo.conf
lba32
boot=/dev/hda
install=/boot/boot-text.b
map=/boot/map
delay=20
prompt
timeout=150
default=Linux

image=/vmlinuz
    label=Linux
    root=/dev/hdb8
    vga=0x30c
    read-only

image=/home/jim/src/kernel-source-2.4.26/arch/i386/boot/bzImage
    label=New
    vga=0x30c
    root=/dev/hdb8
    read-only

other=/dev/hda1
    label="Win"

Booting "Linux" works fine.
When I boot "New" I get:
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k block-major-3, errno = 2
VFS: Cannot open root device "348" or 3:48
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic...

I assume the 3:48 is the same as the "Root device is (3, 72)"
reported above, as 0x48 is 72 decimal.  I cannot find where it is set.

Can anyone shed some light on this?
Also, how do I deal with the depmod errors (unresolved references)?

TIA
Jim