So I've always used the standard kernels in Redhat, then I switched to Mandrake and compiled a standard kernel and ran into problems, but eventually got it working. Then I found out that Mandrake makes custom kernels that I am supposed to use. Soooo.... is that really what I am supposed to do or would anyone recommend using a standard kernel in Mandrake?

THANKS!

standard as in those from kernel.org? Mandrake's own kernel has tons of patches for hardware support and the like to make life easier. But it's bloated so you're better off getting the kernel source from them (for 9.1. it's on the 3rd CD) and recompile it which is still a lot easier than getting plain vanilla kernel and trying to apply whatever patches you need.

So you'd suggest the compiling the mandrake kernel source and not the kernel.org source? It seems like the Mandrake kernels lag behind the standard kernels as far as version number and such...

The mandrake kernels are heavily patched so I think 2.4.21 they use in 9.1 is actually quite close to 2.4.22 which they use in 9.2. asfaik, among the major distributions, only Slack9.1 and mandrake9.2 use 2.4.22 and RH9 and Suse8.1 are even behind 2.4.21 so mandrake9.1 is pretty cutting edge. You can also download a mandrake 2.4.6 kernel source from mandrake.

If you are comfortable patching your kernels, then you can compile the plain vanilla kernels. After all, that's what they do at mandrake too. I doubt it will break your system and maybe you don't even need any patches.