Did you use an initrd in lilo.conf or since you compiled support for ReiserFSinto the kernel, did you avoid that problem.?

I am trying to compile 2.4.24 and just cannot get it to work either way. Using an initrd causes a kernel bug during boot and trying it without an initrd causes an unuseable system that spews dozens of error message just as 'INIT knoppix 2.78....' appears in the boot sequence. My tale of woe is at
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7814

Did you do it the Debian way with 'make-kpkg' or individual 'make' commands? What steps did you have to do? I have read numerous instructions and they are pretty consistent about how to do it the Debian way, but it just will not work for me when I reboot. I think it is related to handling modules which seem to have slight variations in each set of instructions.

I may just throw away 2.4.24 and take the leap to 2.6, but somehow I think I will get tripped up with the same issue as now. Besides, from the DRI-devel list there are far fewer problems using older kernels rather than new since this is what they are being developed against for the most part.