Compiling a kernel on RHEL

[Stephane Bortzmeyer]

[Warning: beginner]

I need to add the connlimit module of Netfilter
(http://www.netfilter.org/patch-o-matic/pom-base.html#pom-base-connlimit)
and it does not seem included in the official kernel. Therefore, I
need to compile mine.

I thought it would be simpler to use RHEL sources (and safer since the
machine has cutting-edge hardware, whose drivers may not be in
ftp.kernel.org regular kernels). I 'up2date kernel-smp-devel', I copy
the sources, 'make menuconfig' works OK but then make fails:

eowyn:~/kernels/2.6.9-34.EL-smp-x86_64 % make
  CHK     include/linux/version.h
  CHK     include/asm-x86_64/offset.h
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `init/main.o', needed by `init/built-in.o'. Stop.
make: *** [init] Error 2

I opened a ticket at RedHat but because
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/sysadmin-guide/ch-kernel.html
says:

Please note, that building a custom kernel is not supported by the Red
Hat Global Services Support team, and therefore is not explored in
this manual.

I do not think I'll get a reply. So, if someone knows how to compile a
RHEL kernel?

Platform: HP Proliant with AMD64 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES
release 4 (Nahant Update 3)