ebtables on redhat9

hi,

i am trying to use ebtables on my Redhat9 PC and I meet some troubles.
First, I tryed to access archived mailing-list on ebtables.sourceforge.net, but I did not succed. Is it possible ?

Anyway, let me explain my problems.I have a lot of questions and I hope someone could have some answers.

I have Redhat9 with a 2.4.20-8 kernel. I installed the brctl from sourceforge without any problem. Then : 

I downloaded ebtables-v2.0.6.tar.gz and untar it at /home.

I did "make" and "make install" at /home/ebtables-v2.0.6 . No error message !

I downloaded patches ebtables-v2.0.003_vs_2.4.20.diff.gz and bridge-nf-0.0.10-against-2.4.20.diff.gz and gunzip them at /home

I executed patch at /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-8 and I have some "hunk failed"

I configured the kernel :
'Network packet filtering (replaces ipchains)' -> 'y'
'802.1d Ethernet Bridging' -> 'y'
all ebt features -> 'm'

I compiled the new kernel and I boot. I have few doubts about how I compile and install a kernel and its modules.

I have boot messages during modules installations - modprobe problems. These messages are too fast to be read at boot time. They are not reported in any /var/log file.

When I execute any ebtables command, I have :
modprobe: can't locate module ebtables
the kernel doesn't support ebtables filter table

If anyone was kind enough to have read my mail untill here, here are my questions :
- is there any forum or any archives to read on the web about ebtables ?
- where can I read modules installation boot messages ? I can not find it in /var/log
- is it possible to use ebtables on redhat 9 with a 2.4.20-8 kernel ?
- is it possible to use ebtables on redhat 9 with any 2.4 kernel ?
- it is important for me to use 2.4 kernel, should I change my distribution ?
- when should I execute patches ?
- Are "hunk failed" normal when executing patches ?
- Is my method to install ebtables wrong ?
- I also tryed to compile my kernel with ebt features configured in 'y' and but It looked to be worst. How should I congigure the ebt kernel features ? as 'm' or as 'y' ?
- what should i do to have ebtables on my PC with a linux 2.4 kernel ?


any answer should greatly help me !
THANKS FOR HAVING READ MY MAIL !

Irénée B