You might want to try to compile a kernel first and boot with it. Here's a howto for it:
http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/tut...ernel-pkg.html
Basically you do:
- download full source from kernel.org
- tar xvjf kernel-source-version.tar.bz2
- ln -s /usr/src/linux-versionname /usr/src/linux
- cp /boot/config-2.6.x-some-name /usr/src/linux/.config (check the /boot/filename)
- cd linux
- make oldconfig (to read in the Knoppix config, you can also start with defconfig to get a default conf)
- make menuconfig (clean out unneeded stuff from the kernel)
- make-kpkg clean
- make-kpkg --append-to-version=-310505 kernel_image (use any date or name)
- cd..
- dpkg -i kernel-image-your_version_name.deb
- check /etc/lilo.conf to add a section for the new kernel. You can copy the previous one and just change the wmlinuz name according to the new on in /boot/
- leave the previous kernel in lilo so that you have one that boots
- lilo -v (to make sure it updated, then reboot and hope it boots)

When you get the kernel working you can run the nvidia script and add "nv" instead of "nvidia" as driver to /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.