I followed the manual, but for whatever reason my kernel would not compile without a prior make mrproper. kernel is 2.4.17-r5.
Yes. Not sure the best way to go about fixing this one.
should be enough to just mention it in the manual. The problem is not the make mrproper, but to find out, that you have to do it.
This is fixed in linux-sources-2.4.19. We now only do a make dep if we have detected a pre-existing config in /usr/src/linux and used it for our new kernel, in which case the config should be similar enough to what the user wants to not require a make mrproper. So soon, no make mrproper will be needed at new install time.