kernel rebuilding/patching

[Ashish Samant <als1140 cs rit edu>]

Hi,

I have RH9 with kernel version 2.4.20 running on a AMD athlon desktop. I
need to compile in some piece of software, patch it into the kernel. I
tired applying the patch that I have, which is supposed to work with 2.4
and newer kernel versions. But some of the hunks failed and even manual
fixing didnt help. I guess, since the kernel that ships with RH9 is
already patched a bit, what I need is a clean kernel source.

Now, I have a clean copy of 2.4.20 tarball. I would like to know, where
can I put it. Right now, I have a soft link, /usr/src/linux-2.4, that
points to usr/src/linux-2.4.20. This holds the original kernel source.Do I
make a new directory, say, /usr/src/linux-custom, and have a soft link,
/usr/src/linux point to it ? Or can I have it in my home directory and
have the soft link /usr/src/linux point to it. ? Or any other arrangement
?

Another question was, can I use my older .config file, with this newer
kernel, to retain my original settings ?

I am just starting out with kernel rebuilding/patching process and trying
to read up the docs and other material in the public domain, but feel a
little lost now. Any kind of comment, tip will be welcome.

Thanks for your time,

Ashish.