A clean install of redhat 6.1's kernel source does not compile!
This is the command history I tried:

cd /usr/src
rpm -e kernel-utils
rpm -e kernel-source
rpm -e --nodeps kernel-headers
rm -rf linux-2.2.12/
rpm -i /home/pim/temp/kernel-headers-2.2.12-20.i386.rpm
rpm -i /home/pim/temp/kernel-utils-2.2.12-20.i386.rpm
rpm -i /home/pim/temp/kernel-source-2.2.12-20.i386.rpm
cd linux
make dep

This results in the following makefile error:

make -C fc4 fastdep
make[4]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.2.12/drivers/fc4'
Makefile:10: ../../.config: No such file or directory
make[4]: *** No rule to make target `../../.config'.  Stop.
make[4]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.2.12/drivers/fc4'
make[3]: *** [_sfdep_fc4] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.2.12/drivers'
make[2]: *** [fastdep] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.2.12/drivers'
make[1]: *** [_sfdep_drivers] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.2.12'
make: *** [dep-files] Error 2