diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 673148e07603..34d6176dfcba 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -106,12 +106,13 @@ KBUILD_OUTPUT := $(shell cd $(KBUILD_OUTPUT) && /bin/pwd)
 $(if $(KBUILD_OUTPUT),, \
      $(error output directory "$(saved-output)" does not exist))
 
-.PHONY: $(MAKECMDGOALS)
+.PHONY: $(MAKECMDGOALS) cdbuilddir
+$(MAKECMDGOALS) _all: cdbuilddir
 
-$(filter-out _all,$(MAKECMDGOALS)) _all:
+cdbuilddir:
 	$(if $(KBUILD_VERBOSE:1=),@)$(MAKE) -C $(KBUILD_OUTPUT) \
 	KBUILD_SRC=$(CURDIR) \
-	KBUILD_EXTMOD="$(KBUILD_EXTMOD)" -f $(CURDIR)/Makefile $@
+	KBUILD_EXTMOD="$(KBUILD_EXTMOD)" -f $(CURDIR)/Makefile $(MAKECMDGOALS)
 
 # Leave processing to above invocation of make
 skip-makefile := 1
@@ -337,8 +338,9 @@ AFLAGS		:= -D__ASSEMBLY__
 
 # Read KERNELRELEASE from .kernelrelease (if it exists)
 KERNELRELEASE = $(shell cat .kernelrelease 2> /dev/null)
+KERNELVERSION = $(VERSION).$(PATCHLEVEL).$(SUBLEVEL)$(EXTRAVERSION)
 
-export	VERSION PATCHLEVEL SUBLEVEL KERNELRELEASE \
+export	VERSION PATCHLEVEL SUBLEVEL KERNELRELEASE KERNELVERSION \
 	ARCH CONFIG_SHELL HOSTCC HOSTCFLAGS CROSS_COMPILE AS LD CC \
 	CPP AR NM STRIP OBJCOPY OBJDUMP MAKE AWK GENKSYMS PERL UTS_MACHINE \
 	HOSTCXX HOSTCXXFLAGS LDFLAGS_MODULE CHECK CHECKFLAGS
@@ -433,6 +435,7 @@ export KBUILD_DEFCONFIG
 config %config: scripts_basic outputmakefile FORCE
 	$(Q)mkdir -p include/linux
 	$(Q)$(MAKE) $(build)=scripts/kconfig $@
+	$(Q)$(MAKE) .kernelrelease
 
 else
 # ===========================================================================
@@ -542,7 +545,7 @@ export	INSTALL_PATH ?= /boot
 # makefile but the arguement can be passed to make if needed.
 #
 
-MODLIB	:= $(INSTALL_MOD_PATH)/lib/modules/$(KERNELRELEASE)
+MODLIB	= $(INSTALL_MOD_PATH)/lib/modules/$(KERNELRELEASE)
 export MODLIB
 
 
@@ -783,12 +786,10 @@ endif
 localver-full = $(localver)$(localver-auto)
 
 # Store (new) KERNELRELASE string in .kernelrelease
-kernelrelease = \
-       $(VERSION).$(PATCHLEVEL).$(SUBLEVEL)$(EXTRAVERSION)$(localver-full)
+kernelrelease = $(KERNELVERSION)$(localver-full)
 .kernelrelease: FORCE
-	$(Q)rm -f .kernelrelease
-	$(Q)echo $(kernelrelease) > .kernelrelease
-	$(Q)echo "  Building kernel $(kernelrelease)"
+	$(Q)rm -f $@
+	$(Q)echo $(kernelrelease) > $@
 
 
 # Things we need to do before we recursively start building the kernel
@@ -898,7 +899,7 @@ define filechk_version.h
 	)
 endef
 
-include/linux/version.h: $(srctree)/Makefile FORCE
+include/linux/version.h: $(srctree)/Makefile .config FORCE
 	$(call filechk,version.h)
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -1301,9 +1302,10 @@ checkstack:
 	$(PERL) $(src)/scripts/checkstack.pl $(ARCH)
 
 kernelrelease:
-	@echo $(KERNELRELEASE)
+	$(if $(wildcard .kernelrelease), $(Q)echo $(KERNELRELEASE), \
+	$(error kernelrelease not valid - run 'make *config' to update it))
 kernelversion:
-	@echo $(VERSION).$(PATCHLEVEL).$(SUBLEVEL)$(EXTRAVERSION)
+	@echo $(KERNELVERSION)
 
 # FIXME Should go into a make.lib or something 
 # ===========================================================================
diff --git a/scripts/kconfig/confdata.c b/scripts/kconfig/confdata.c
index ccd45130c482..b0cbbe2e41bb 100644
--- a/scripts/kconfig/confdata.c
+++ b/scripts/kconfig/confdata.c
@@ -375,7 +375,7 @@ int conf_write(const char *name)
 		if (!out_h)
 			return 1;
 	}
-	sym = sym_lookup("KERNELRELEASE", 0);
+	sym = sym_lookup("KERNELVERSION", 0);
 	sym_calc_value(sym);
 	time(&now);
 	env = getenv("KCONFIG_NOTIMESTAMP");
diff --git a/scripts/kconfig/gconf.c b/scripts/kconfig/gconf.c
index 9f5aabd58fa9..665bd5300a19 100644
--- a/scripts/kconfig/gconf.c
+++ b/scripts/kconfig/gconf.c
@@ -276,7 +276,7 @@ void init_main_window(const gchar * glade_file)
 					  NULL);
 
 	sprintf(title, _("Linux Kernel v%s Configuration"),
-		getenv("KERNELRELEASE"));
+		getenv("KERNELVERSION"));
 	gtk_window_set_title(GTK_WINDOW(main_wnd), title);
 
 	gtk_widget_show(main_wnd);
diff --git a/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/Makefile b/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/Makefile
index 8f41d9a57aaa..fae3e29fc924 100644
--- a/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/Makefile
+++ b/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/Makefile
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 # Makefile to build lxdialog package
 #
 
-check-lxdialog   := $(srctree)/$(src)/check-lxdialog.sh
-HOST_EXTRACFLAGS := $(shell $(CONFIG_SHELL) $(check-lxdialog) -ccflags)
-HOST_LOADLIBES   := $(shell $(CONFIG_SHELL) $(check-lxdialog) -ldflags)
+check-lxdialog  := $(srctree)/$(src)/check-lxdialog.sh
+HOST_EXTRACFLAGS:= $(shell $(CONFIG_SHELL) $(check-lxdialog) -ccflags)
+HOST_LOADLIBES  := $(shell $(CONFIG_SHELL) $(check-lxdialog) -ldflags $(HOSTCC))
  
 HOST_EXTRACFLAGS += -DLOCALE 
 
diff --git a/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/check-lxdialog.sh b/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/check-lxdialog.sh
index a3c141b49670..448e353923f3 100644
--- a/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/check-lxdialog.sh
+++ b/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/check-lxdialog.sh
@@ -4,11 +4,22 @@
 # What library to link
 ldflags()
 {
-	if [ `uname` == SunOS ]; then
-		echo '-lcurses'
-	else
-		echo '-lncurses'
+	echo "main() {}" | $cc -lncursesw -xc - -o /dev/null 2> /dev/null
+	if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+		echo '-lncursesw'
+		exit
 	fi
+	echo "main() {}" | $cc -lncurses -xc - -o /dev/null 2> /dev/null
+	if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+		echo '-lncurses'
+		exit
+	fi
+	echo "main() {}" | $cc -lcurses -xc - -o /dev/null 2> /dev/null
+	if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+		echo '-lcurses'
+		exit
+	fi
+	exit 1
 }
 
 # Where is ncurses.h?
@@ -28,7 +39,7 @@ ccflags()
 compiler=""
 # Check if we can link to ncurses
 check() {
-	echo "main() {}" | $compiler -xc -
+	echo "main() {}" | $cc -xc - -o /dev/null 2> /dev/null
 	if [ $? != 0 ]; then
 		echo " *** Unable to find the ncurses libraries."          1>&2
 		echo " *** make menuconfig require the ncurses libraries"  1>&2
@@ -51,13 +62,15 @@ fi
 case "$1" in
 	"-check")
 		shift
-		compiler="$@"
+		cc="$@"
 		check
 		;;
 	"-ccflags")
 		ccflags
 		;;
 	"-ldflags")
+		shift
+		cc="$@"
 		ldflags
 		;;
 	"*")
diff --git a/scripts/kconfig/mconf.c b/scripts/kconfig/mconf.c
index d63d7fb677e4..7f973195e79a 100644
--- a/scripts/kconfig/mconf.c
+++ b/scripts/kconfig/mconf.c
@@ -1051,7 +1051,7 @@ int main(int ac, char **av)
 	conf_parse(av[1]);
 	conf_read(NULL);
 
-	sym = sym_lookup("KERNELRELEASE", 0);
+	sym = sym_lookup("KERNELVERSION", 0);
 	sym_calc_value(sym);
 	sprintf(menu_backtitle, _("Linux Kernel v%s Configuration"),
 		sym_get_string_value(sym));
diff --git a/scripts/kconfig/symbol.c b/scripts/kconfig/symbol.c
index 69c2549c0baa..3d7877afccd5 100644
--- a/scripts/kconfig/symbol.c
+++ b/scripts/kconfig/symbol.c
@@ -61,10 +61,10 @@ void sym_init(void)
 	if (p)
 		sym_add_default(sym, p);
 
-	sym = sym_lookup("KERNELRELEASE", 0);
+	sym = sym_lookup("KERNELVERSION", 0);
 	sym->type = S_STRING;
 	sym->flags |= SYMBOL_AUTO;
-	p = getenv("KERNELRELEASE");
+	p = getenv("KERNELVERSION");
 	if (p)
 		sym_add_default(sym, p);