I did something like this to clean and build my kernel -

make mrproper oldconfig prepare-all scripts
(making of kernel)
make oldconfig
make 2>&1 | tee kernelmake.log
(Installing kernel modules, below two in /boot)
mv /arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-image-2.6.8-2-686
mv /usr/src/linux-2.6.8/System-map /boot/System-map-2.6.8-2-686
make modules_install( in /usr/src/linux-2.6.8)

Today when I started I am getting following things -
lib/modules/2.6.8/modules.dep
pivot_root : No such file or directory
sbin/init : 423 cannot open dev/console: No such file
Kernel panic : Attempted to kill init

Any clue to get rid of above.

It cannot find the root filesystem and thus fails to switch the filesystem root onto it (pivot_root : No such file or directory).

As you built that kernel yourself for some reason, it is likely you missed some ATA/SATA/SCSI or filesystem drivers. Such that are needed to be loaded before the filesystem can be accessed (which pretty obviously is the case of loading the root filesystem - pretty hard to load those modules from that filesystem when you need the modules to do so in the first place), such modules need to either be statically compiled into kernel or as module placed in an initrd image so they can be available before the filesystems are available.

daststrike .. tx for your comments, do uou have some thought how one can get rid off.

tx -- dastrike, I was able to work out as I had some other version through which it rebooted.

Did you know there is a better, easier and cleaner way to compile and install a kernel in Debian?

Try this from your /usr/src/linux-source-2.x.x or /usr/src/kernel-source-2.x.x:
For example:
Fakeroot is only required if you are working as a normal user (not root).

This will create a debian package in the parent directory. Therefore, to install the package, just call

Logically, replace x with the currect numbers.

Sorry if this is not the answer to your question, but it can help you doing the same job with much less effort. ;-)

Ciao
Emidio