Created attachment 321498 [details]
.config

Description of problem:

If I have e1000 modules enabled in kernel and e1000e disabled, kernel fails to build with the following error:

  UPD     include/linux/compile.h
  CC      init/version.o
  LD      init/built-in.o
  LD      .tmp_vmlinux1
drivers/built-in.o: In function `e1000_init_module':
e1000_main.c:(.init.text+0x47e2): undefined reference to `e1000e_driver_request'
make: *** [.tmp_vmlinux1] Error 1

Seems that the following code cause this(drivers/net/e1000/e1000_main.c):
static int __init
e1000_init_module(void)
{
        int ret;
        extern int e1000e_driver_request();

        e1000e_driver_request();

        printk(KERN_INFO "%s - version %s\n",
               e1000_driver_string, e1000_driver_version);

In vanilla kernel there is no calls to e1000e driver functions while here they are. Possible solution is to enabled e1000e when e1000 is enabled.

Note, I'm using the following openvz kernel:
http://wiki.openvz.org/Download/kernel/rhel5/028stab059.3
which is based on rhel5 patchset and since vanilla openvz patch does not have e1000e driver I think this bug is caused by rhel patchset. Sorry if I'm wrong.

Just in case that's required I've attached .config file which does not allow me to build kernel.