I was reading on the classic method on upgrading kernel and they end off the installation with "copying /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/System.map to /boot/System.map-<version> and to have a symbolic link linking /System.map to /boot/System.map-<version>.

However, with my default kernel that comes with 'Woody', there is _no_ System.map in my / directory that links to the /boot/System.map-2.4.18-bf2.4

So, do I need to create a new /System.map to link to the new /boot/System.map-<version> or would just copying /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/System.map to /boot/System.map-<version> suffice?

Thanks!

you installed debian with kernel 2.4. If you want to upgrade you can use the debian method with make-kpkg or other methods(initrd,bzimage), you don't need to copy the map file it will be done by someone else :-)