Ok, the people at debian help seem stumped on this one. For a backround on where we're at, here is the thread where debianhelp has been working on it. Maybe someone here can offer some insight. Any ideas on where to go from here?

I've seen a bunch of syntax errors reported in the config file. Could be a clue (although I don't know much of C and/or C++ syntax, so I can't help you on that)

Also, you've made a remark about the 2.6 kernel being too big for (your?) older hardware. Well, maybe by default it is but that's why there is a configuration part in kernel building You can remove all options your/the hardware doesn't support, thus making the kernel's footprint much smaller.

Otherwise: I can't find any new insight in your problem not already mentioned in the thread you've linked. Except perhaps for an obvious question: why not change to Debian itself? Sarge probably will do for that hardware, try lightweight app's like Xfce for the desktop and such...