What have I done? Can't compile my kernel!!! HELP!!!

[Tahoe_Strider]

What started out as a seemingly simple task has now become an exercise in frustration...please bear with me here as I am in no way, shape or form a Gentoo Expert:

I wanted to install iptables and I was having errors while attempting to insmod. I read somewhere that this occurs sometimes and a fix for this is to disable the CONFIG_MODVERSIONS parameter...so I did this.

I then ran "make mrproper" and proceeded to run "make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install"

I just ran this earlier this morning with no problems whatsoever...NOW...I'm getting the following error(s)(please excuse the lengthy message):

make[3]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/drivers/usb'
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include -Wall -Wstrict-protot ypes -Wno-trigraphs -O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -fomit-frame-pointer -p ipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i686 -nostdinc -iwithprefix include -D KBUILD_BASENAME=usb -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -c usb.c
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include -Wall -Wstrict-protot ypes -Wno-trigraphs -O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -fomit-frame-pointer -p ipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i686 -nostdinc -iwithprefix include -D KBUILD_BASENAME=usb_debug -c -o usb-debug.o usb-debug.c
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include -Wall -Wstrict-protot ypes -Wno-trigraphs -O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -fomit-frame-pointer -p ipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i686 -nostdinc -iwithprefix include -D KBUILD_BASENAME=hub -c -o hub.o hub.c
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include -Wall -Wstrict-protot ypes -Wno-trigraphs -O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -fomit-frame-pointer -p ipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i686 -nostdinc -iwithprefix include -D KBUILD_BASENAME=devio -c -o devio.o devio.c
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include -Wall -Wstrict-protot ypes -Wno-trigraphs -O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -fomit-frame-pointer -p ipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i686 -nostdinc -iwithprefix include -D KBUILD_BASENAME=inode -c -o inode.o inode.c
inode.c:681: redefinition of `usbdevfs_add_bus'
/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include/linux/usb.h:1112: `usbdevfs_add_bus' pre viously defined here
inode.c:693: redefinition of `usbdevfs_remove_bus'
/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include/linux/usb.h:1113: `usbdevfs_remove_bus' previously defined here
inode.c:703: redefinition of `usbdevfs_add_device'
/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include/linux/usb.h:1114: `usbdevfs_add_device' previously defined here
inode.c:715: redefinition of `usbdevfs_remove_device'
/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include/linux/usb.h:1115: `usbdevfs_remove_devic e' previously defined here
inode.c:750: redefinition of `usbdevfs_init'
/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include/linux/usb.h:1117: `usbdevfs_init' previo usly defined here
inode.c:775: redefinition of `usbdevfs_cleanup'
/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/include/linux/usb.h:1118: `usbdevfs_cleanup' pre viously defined here
make[3]: *** [inode.o] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/drivers/usb'
make[2]: *** [first_rule] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/drivers/usb'
make[1]: *** [_subdir_usb] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r5/drivers'
make: *** [_dir_drivers] Error 2

I'm not sure as to why I am now getting errors regarding USB as my .config file has had no changes to it in that section...but I am at a complete loss. Hopefully somebody can help me out here...Thank you

[hensan]

You are aware of that 'make mrproper' deletes you .config file, right? So unless you copied in a .config file from somewhere after mproper you have to do a 'make menuconfig' before compiling the kernel.

Not sure if this causes those errors, just thought I'd mention it.

[Tahoe_Strider]

Yes...I saved a copy of the .config file, ran "make mproper", and then copied the .config file back into the directory...After this mess, I copied an "original" .config file back w/ all my working options and am still getting the same errors.

[patience]

Are you sure you didn't make any changes to the kernel code, like by patching? If you're using a .config from an older kernel, you should issue

[Tahoe_Strider]

Well "HOT DAMN"....that did it patience. Thank you very much for the lead...jesus! I've been pullin my hair out over this one and furiously searching the web for resolution....Many thanks my friend...