Hello, i'm trying to install debian woody. Looking at http://packages.debian.org/stable/base I see that there is no image for the 2.4.19 kernel. How come and how do I get this kernel other then compiling it from source?

You will have to append your sources list to include at least testing.
It's under /etc/apt/sources.list - just put a line in there that goes like:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
and update you packages.
BTW:It's a good idea to install galeon.It has reeaally convinient bookmarks for debian included.With this you only type the name of the package you want and it automatically searches in the debian database for it.

Thanks. I had to compile my kernel from source any way, network driver issus.
Anyway I got it compiled and the damn thing accutally booted.
(). startx worked fine and everything looked alright. But there are still some things that I thinks are not quite right.
first, when I do "lsmod", no modules at all seem to be loaded. Is that healty?
second, I compiled a module (pegasus.o) from source and modified the makefile to include the headers of my new kernel (2.4.19). But when I do "insmod pegasus" it tells me that there is a kernel mismatch. It says the driver was build for the 2.4.18 kernel and that this was 2.4.19. I'm sure i'm trying to insert the newly build driver. How is this possible?

Ho and I tried to force insert the module but this resulted in a system hang

I only got experience with patching drivers that are already in the kernel (like for SiS graphics).All I got to do there is insert the new driver and the makefile into the kernel tree and compile as usual.If your driver is actually for 2.4.18 and you use 2.4.19 chances are it doesn't work.
Modules only get loaded as needed if you compiled you kernel this way.There are different opinions about that whole module stuff.I prefer not to compile things as modules but right into the kernel.I really don't care if the kernel is 200kb bigger or not.Rather don't worry if the module I need is loaded or not.
It sure is great for distros or people that want identical kernels for different machines or got an i386 with 32 mb RAM.For me it's just one more thing that can go wrong.

BTW: If you don't mind a lot of email volume (about 300 daily) I would highly recommend to subscribe to the debian user list at debian-user@lists.debian.org The guys there are extremely knowledgeable

thanks for your reply. I wiil subscribe to the mailing list