how to upgrade to debian testing kernel?

I just upgrade the stock knoppix 3.2 kernel to kernel-image-2.4.20-3-686, and the new kernel would not boot, and it complains:
failed to open the filesystem and fsck.reiserfs exited with signal 6 etc.

What am I missing?

Thanks in advance

I found out the solution: just pass devfs=nomount boot params to kernel; but modprobe seems to act a bit strange, that's another issue!