Upgrade from kernel 2.4.27-2-386

[sorsfacias]

I've got a Debian box running kernel version 2.4.27-2-386 and am having a heck of a time getting it upgraded to 2.6.x. Yes, I know, I should have upgraded from 2.4.x a long time ago...

At this point apt-get and aptitude are killing me when trying to upgrade to the version available (2.6.26) either directly or through dist-upgrade.

I downloaded and compiled 2.6.29 from kernel.org hoping for that avenue, however, I got a kernel panic message that it couldn't mount the root file system. It also didn't create an initrd image in the /boot directory, not sure if that is normal for that kernel release or not.

Anybody have any ideas on the best way to get the kernel upgraded to 2.6.x?

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome
It would greatly help if you could post the exact error messages from synaptic or apt-get. Generally speaking, upgrading the kernel is the same on every version of Linux I have tried, and I have tried quiet a few. Another thing to check is the change in device naming between 2.4.27 and 2.6.29 kernels, it's likely that any hd* will become sd* with the new kernel, so change your /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst and /boot/grub/device.map accordingly.
Debian-Kernel-Compile-Howto - FalkoTimme.com