Under 2.4.18 and greater kernels, there is no need to
recompile the kernel or the drivers, everything will work "out of
the box". Still, there are two problems that might
occur.
One problem is that sometimes the drivers
do not set the root device appropriately. Use the following
sequence to install the driver modules:
modprobe ohci1394 attempt_root=1
modprobe video1394
modprobe raw1394
DCAM requires the libraw1394 libraries,
which may not be installed on your machine. These libraries are available from www.linux1394.org,
under the libraw1394 project. There are binary distributions for Red Hat
and Debian distribution. Get the latest distribution (libraw1394-0.9.0),
and install it (you can get the i386 rpm, which installs the binaries
directly).
Another problem is with PCMCIA
cards. The ohci1394 driver cannot be loaded before the card is
plugged in. FIrst plug the card in, then run the modprobe sequence
above. Also, before the card is ejected, video1394 and ohci1394
must be removed from the driver list. This problem is fixed if you
upgrade to the latest CVS version of the IEEE 1394 drivers.
More detailed directions can be found here.