When you changed the bios and controller, you probably changed the "translation" the drive uses. It used to claim a different number of heads and sectors so that it would not go over the cylinder limit.
The "Oops" indicates a crash of the kernel. It would help to
know the kernel versions you were using on Debian and Slackware.
I will be releasing a new boot disk within a few days - hopefully it
will work better for you.
Thanks
Bruce Perens
