New info. Booting an OLD woody 2.2.20-pci-ide kernel on a floppy, and following suggestion here http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2004/12/msg00260.html allowed me to conplete the install of 'kernel-image-2.6.8-1-386'.
Next I booted the kernel-image-2.6.8-1-386, and then successfully installed kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386. [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ sudo apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386 Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done Suggested packages: lilo kernel-doc-2.4.27 kernel-source-2.4.27 kernel-pcmcia-modules-2.4.27-1-386 The following NEW packages will be installed: kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded. Need to get 0B/11.0MB of archives. After unpacking 29.7MB of additional disk space will be used. Selecting previously deselected package kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386. (Reading database ... 102269 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386 (from .../kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386_2.4.27-6_i386.deb) ... Setting up kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386 (2.4.27-6) ... Not touching initrd symlinks since we are being reinstalled (2.4.27-2) Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated (2.4.27-2) Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub . Testing for an existing GRUB menu.list file... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst . Searching for splash image... none found, skipping... Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-386 Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8-smp Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.27-1-386 Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ So then I tried this and was supprised to see it work. [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ sudo apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8 Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done Suggested packages: lilo The following NEW packages will be installed: kernel-image-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded. Need to get 13.2MB of archives. After unpacking 46.5MB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://mirrors.kernel.org testing/main kernel-image-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8 2.6.8-8 [13.2MB] Fetched 13.2MB in 3m24s (64.8kB/s) Selecting previously deselected package kernel-image-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8. (Reading database ... 103543 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking kernel-image-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8 (from .../kernel-image-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8_2.6.8-8_i386.deb) ... Setting up kernel-image-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8 (2.6.8-8) ... Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub . Testing for an existing GRUB menu.list file... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst . Searching for splash image... none found, skipping... Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-386 Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8-smp Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8 Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.27-1-386 Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ It seems I can not install kernel images (ie makinitrd) while running and amd64 kernel. What a pain in the butt. The pending update of kernel-image-2.6.8-9-amd64-k8-smp might just upgrade now, if I do it running an i386 kernel. I'm holding off for now though. Perhaps the amd64 kernels don't work well on sarge, and should be removed
