i'm getting an error trying to upgrade the 2.2.15 kernel to the 2.2.16 kernel. i'm running mandrake 7.1, i type "make xconfig" then "make dep" then "make clean" then after running "make bzImage or make zImage" i keep getting this error. the last 5 lines are.

as86 -0 -a -o bbootsect.o bbootsect.s
make[1]: as86: Command not found
make[1]: *** [bbootsect.o] Error 127
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot'
make: ***[bzImage] Error 2

i have gone back and started from make dep with no luck. let me know if you need anymore info. and i am running as root. hope you can help.

You appear to be missing as86, which is an assembler for the 8086..80386 processors. On a Red Hat system as86 is provided by the dev86 rpm, usually Mandrake is similar.

If you were to be missing a component, such as as86, how do you install the component? (sometimes the readme files are so confusing...)

To install as86 you would need to do the following:
1) Download the dev86 rpm
2) su to root
3) type rpm -ivh dev86.rpm