After a few kernel panics (only the kernel panicked, I didn't, he he) trying to boot a new kernel image without proper lilo reconfs, I managed to run the thing. "dpkg-reconfigure lilo" did the job.

Now the system boots over a smart boot manager floppy (http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/) and loads the kernel right in the debian partition. Very nice. I have kernel 2.6.5-1-k7, kde 3.2.2 and stuff... The damn thing flies! Very fast!
Also, I can mount all my other reiser partitions from suse.

I wanna thank all you guys from LQ-Debian, without whom I wouldn't reach this!



And also, ask for more support... I guess I'll have to reinstall some of my hardware:

- No network. when I "ifup eth0", it says: "Unrecognized kernel version". "Modprobe 8139too" returns no errors, but the unrecognized message keeps coming when I ifup again.

- No sound. when I open kmix, it asks for mixer device with a list that won't contain any. No idea where to start. In /dev I see devices dsp and audio, some of them.

It is a matter of install drivers? Do I download them in tar.gz form? apt-get can do something for me?

The 2.6.x kernels need some alsa packages installed before you can get sound out of them.
I think the package is alsa-utils, but have a poke around with apt-cache search to check what you need.

With respect the the network, the only thing I can think of is the 2.6.x kernels need a newer module tools... try updating them. I can't remember the package name off the top of my head, google should be able to find it for you.

To load the kernel module for your NIC, you can open (as root) /etc/modprobe.d/aliases with a text editor and add an extra line:

alias eth0 8139too

Then use (as root) the "update-modules" command. After this, restarting network (or rebooting) should make your NIC work. If the "ifconfig" command shows some info for eth0, then it works OK.

Configuring network connection in Debian depends on the type of connection you have, but usually it involves editing /etc/network/interfaces.


Getting sound to work requires installing the "alsa-base" and "alsa-utils" packages (which can be found in Aptitude, along with some optional ALSA-related goodies, in "sound -> main"). After installing these packages, use (as root) the "alsaconf" command. You can use any available mixer to adjust sound volume.


An easy way to install kernel modules is to install the "modconf" utility. Sometimes modconf fails but the "update-modules" method described above should work in most cases.

Hi!
******
Getting sound to work requires installing the "alsa-base" and "alsa-utils" packages (which can be found in Aptitude, along with some optional ALSA-related goodies, in "sound -> main"). After installing these packages, use (as root) the "alsaconf" command. You can use any available mixer to adjust sound volume.
******

I downloaded the packages and installed. Run the alsaconf script. It detects my sound card emu10k1 and goes until saying "snd-emu10k1 is configured."
But then it says "I'll run alsa start and use the amixer to raise the volume..." I click OK, and it fails. But after it fails, it outputs:
"Now, ALSA is ready to use..."
"For adjustements of volumes, use your favorite mixer..."
Have a lot of fun!

And again, when I open kmix, there's no mixer device in the list.

What can I do?

Alsaconf seems to think your sound settings are OK. If you've got the Frozen Bubble game (or any other application that plays sounds), launch it and test if you can hear any music. If this test is success, try again adjusting sound volume with kmix.

When changing kernel from 2.4 to 2.6, there's a big change in using hardware. Have you install udev, hal and maybe hotplug? They did the trick for me.

Further on to use any kernel you like, grub is a good tool to install on mbr:
Quick tip to install GRUB (only Debian users do the apt-get line):

# using the unstable tree
apt-get install grub
grub-install /dev/hda
# Go edit/make a menu.lst file and put it in /boot/grub/menu.lst
grub
# then on the grub prompt run:

# The partition that has the boot partition root (hd0,0) install /grub/stage1 (hd0) /grub/stage2 p /grub/menu.lst quit
(from http://ruslug.rutgers.edu/~mcgrof/grub-images/#0.1)

Good luck, Marc A