Not really. Well, at least the only difference I've really noticed
is that I can do "make modules" in my kernel source tree, install them
and have it whinge and complain about some symbol mismatch or whatever
and refuse to load them. I'm sure there is a good reason for it but I
don't think it is being done the right way if I can build modules from
the same source tree as the kernel and not have them work at all.
It should have worked. My guess is that you changed the configuration
of your kernel between when you built the kernel and when you built the
modules. In that case, there may very well be symbol mismatched due to
the size of structures changes, etc. The Linux system is good enough
that almost always, if the kernel loader detected a symbol mismatch, it
means that the module wouldn't have worked and would have likely crashed
your system anyway.
- Ted