compiling kernel trouble

i install debian etch in a vm and have been playing around with it for a few days. today i decided i wanted to try to compile my own kernel. i found some instructions and followed them. it compiled without any trouble and then i installed it and edited grub to boot from the new kernel. but when i restart i get an error from vmware saying "the cpu has been disable by the guest operating system". then the last line to print while booting is

kernel panic - not syncing : VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

i can still boot into the os by selecting the old version of the kernel in the grub menu. here is the guide i used

http://www.falkotimme.com/howtos/debian_kernel2.6_compile/

the kernel version i used was 2.6.26.3. so what can i do about this?

 

drive identifying method changed with kernel 2.6.21 and above

 

thanks. now is there an easy fix for this problem? something simple like editing the fstab file?

 

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=29522&sid=b43db97dab8600c1cf27ceafcdaabeb5

 

thanks. i will have a look at that tomorrow and i will let you know if i get it working.

 

i finally got it working. third time is a charm. i just had to integrate ext3 support into the kernel.