make mdoule errors

how does one overcome error during make modules i downloaded the kernel source rpm for my suse kernel trying to apply a patch and make moduels keeps giving me this error ysinfo.c:85: for each function it appears in.) make[2]: *** [sysinfo.o] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.4.16.SuSE/abi/svr4' make[1]: *** [_modsubdir_svr4] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.4.16.SuSE/abi' make: *** [_mod_abi] Error 2