I just got around to getting and compiling kernel 2.6.81. I followed all the instructions on http://shilo.is-a-geek.com/slack (summarily: download kernel, configure, make, change all the symbolic links in boot, change lilo), rebooted, and I immediately noticed LILO was broken; it was still displaying my old menu options. I chose my old Linux option anyway (thinking that when I ran /sbin/lilo during the kernel compile process and it gave me an error message about hda3 (my bootable partition) not being active and I stupidly ignored it, it didn't load the new lilo.conf). This SHOULD have worked, because I made the vmlinuz, config, and system.map links to the new kernel files in /boot, but it said something about "BIOS Data Checking" and the screen went black, keyboard unresponsive.

I booted from the Slackware CD and tried to figure out what was going on. I booted the bare.i kernel from the CD, mounted hda3, and checked lilo.conf, nothing seemed odd, so I ran /mnt/sbin/lilo, but it tells me all my files needed don't exist (because i am running it from /mnt). First question, how do I trick it into thinking /mnt is root, so I don't have to make links all over the place? (or should I just make links all over the place)? Second question is, even with the strange LILO behaviors, the kernel still doesn't boot properly. I changed all the symbolic links to the old 2.4.26 kernel files, and the screen continues to go black.

Thanks for your help!
Matt

Not too sure about the lilo part but as for running /mnt as / thats simple

# chroot [mount point] [shell]
eg:
# chroot /mnt/hda3 /bin/bash

You might want to mount proc before you chroot it too:
# mount -t proc none [mount point]/proc

Hope that helps

Did you remember to run /sbin/lilo before you rebooted? That will write the changed information.
You can do as Guardian653 suggests and chroot before trying to run lilo.

Using the ' -l ' option will load in your normal paths.