--I haven't gone to sleep yet and the kernel is still compiling under VMWARE, so here's my unvarnished 2.6.0-test4 experience. Keeping a changelog can SAVE YOUR ASS.

--It all started when I read on Linux Weekly News that a new game (beneath-a-steel-sky) had come out for scummvm, and I figured I'd try it out. I also wanted to start testing the new 2.6 kernel.

(ominous music)

--Basically things went weird when I installed the game, it removed a LOT of packages. So I sez to Mabel, I sez, we should keep this in da log JIC it comes back to bite me in the ass. So here it is, mostly unedited. (I gotta SLEEP.) Beware of games that only come in unstable... Thank God this all happened on my VMware DVD-ISO install and not on the install I use every day!!

Code:
2003.0904 + Attempting to upgrade to kernel 2.6-test4!!
[
	! Changed gcc to 2.95 from 3.3, still can't even make config. :(
	+ Installed pkg module-init-tools (0.9.13-pre-1)
	+ Installed pkg quotatool (1.3.2-2)

	+ Updated nfs: apt-get -t unstable install nfs-common nfs-kernel-server
Get:1 http://ftp2.de.debian.org unstable/main nfs-common 1:1.0.5-2 [55.4kB]
Get:2 http://ftp2.de.debian.org unstable/main nfs-kernel-server 1:1.0.5-2
Preparing to replace nfs-common 1:1.0.3-2 (using
.../nfs-common_1%3a1.0.5-2_i386.deb) ...
Preparing to replace nfs-kernel-server 1:1.0.3-2 (using
.../nfs-kernel-server_1%3a1.0.5-2_i386.deb) ...
Setting up nfs-common (1.0.5-2) ...
Setting up nfs-kernel-server (1.0.5-2) ...


]
	! OMG, we haven't done pkg-deletion yet!!
	+ OK, pkg deletion is done.

+ Installed beneath-a-steel-sky game:
 (Run scummvm, then select game.  Don't use fullscreen mode.)

[ apt-get install beneath-a-steel-sky \
  scummvm/unstable libc6/unstable libgcc1/unstable libstdc++5/unstable

Reading Package Lists...
Building Dependency Tree...
Selected version 0.5.1-2 (Debian:unstable) for scummvm
Selected version 2.3.2-5 (Debian:unstable) for libc6
Selected version 1:3.3.2-0pre2 (Debian:unstable) for libgcc1
Selected version 1:3.3.2-0pre2 (Debian:unstable) for libstdc++5
The following extra packages will be installed:
  cpp-3.2 gcc-3.2 libc6 libgcc1 libstdc++5 scummvm
Suggested packages:
  gcc-3.2-doc timidity
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  build-essential comerr-dev ethereal-dev g++ g++-3.2 g++-3.3 gcj-3.3
  gdk-imlib1-dev j2re1.4 kdelibs4-dev libart-2.0-dev libart-dev libarts1-dev
  libartsc0-dev libasound2-dev libaudiofile-dev libbz2-dev libc6-dev libcln-dev
  libcupsys2-dev libesd0-dev libexpat1-dev libfontconfig1-dev libfreetype6-dev
  libgcj4-dev libgcrypt-dev libgdbmg1-dev libgdk-pixbuf-dev
  libgdk-pixbuf-gnome-dev libginac-dev libglib1.2-dev libglib2.0-dev
  libgnome-dev libgnomeprint-dev libgnorba-dev libgnutls5-dev libgtk1.2-dev
  libjpeg62-dev libmng-dev libncurses5-dev libnewt-dev libogg-dev
  libopencdk-dev liborbit-dev libpam0g-dev libpcap-dev libpcre3-dev
  libpng12-dev libpng3-dev libpopt-dev libqt3-mt-dev libquantlib0-dev
  libreadline4-dev libsasl-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev
  libsdl1.2-dev libsmpeg-dev libstdc++5-3.3-dev libstdc++5-dev libtiff3g-dev
  libtool libusb-dev libvorbis-dev libwrap0-dev libxaw7-dev libxft2-dev
  libxml-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev locales slang1-utf8-dev xlibmesa-gl-dev
  xlibmesa-glu-dev xlibs-dev zlib1g-dev
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  beneath-a-steel-sky scummvm
5 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 76 to remove and 232 not upgraded.
Need to get 76.4MB of archives.
After unpacking 139MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Abort.
]

	+ Continuing to attempt kernel:
[ apt-get -t unstable install g++
The following extra packages will be installed:
  cpp cpp-3.3 g++-3.3 g77-3.3 gcc-3.3 gcc-3.3-base libc6-dev
  libstdc++5-3.3-dev
Suggested packages:
  gcc-3.3-doc libstdc++5-3.3-doc
Recommended packages:
  c-compiler
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  g++ g++-3.3 libc6-dev libstdc++5-3.3-dev
5 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 728 not upgraded.
Need to get 9532kB of archives.
After unpacking 21.6MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]


[ apt-get -t unstable install build-essential
Get:1 http://ftp2.de.debian.org unstable/main build-essential 9.6 [6274B]

	! Success!  Apparently this now enables make config!
	? Now on to menuconfig...
	 + Installed pkg libbz2 0.9.5d-4.1 from unstable
	 + apt-get -t unstable install libncurses5 (libncurses5 5.3.20030719-2)
	 + apt-get -t unstable install libncurses5-dev (libncurses5 5.3.20030719-2)
]	! YAY! Now we can do make menuconfig again!! :)
--So right now the kernel is still compiling. When I wake up I'll see if it bootz. However, my GTK+ and QT install is completely b0rked now, so no chance to see if make xconfig or make gconfig works. But AAMOF it's not that much loss, I always used menuconfig anyway.

...mumble,mumble, needsleepgottagoseeyaz.