I was successfully running a new kernel -2.2.18pre21 then recompiled so i could update my ethernet card driver from rtl8139 to 8139.too. I rebooted from the new boot floppy. Then i did modprobe 8139.too and ifup eth0 and networking ran fine. So i decided to put alias eth0 8139.too in /etc/modutils and run update-modules to regenerate /etc/modules.conf. The next time i rebooted modprobe said : '/etc/modules.conf is more recent than /lib/modules/2.2.18pre21/modules.dep modprobe: can't locate module 8139.too'. Now modprobe -l -t net shows that 8139.too is indeed there, but even if i run depmod -a , modprobe still can't locate 8139.too. I have recompiled and still no luck. I've tried the new kernel with the old driver rtl8139 and reran update-modules and depmod but still get the same message. What am i missing?