Why are only 2.2 or 2.4 kernels available to me?

[Craig Hagerman <craighagerman@gmail.com>]

Hi,

I have just done a reinstall of my debian system. I did a net install
using a chroot from within a Ubuntu amd64 live cd. uname -r gives me:
2.6.10-5-amd64-generic

 I want to install a different kernel in order to install the nvidia
driver. I tried following the instructions on
http://home.comcast.net/~andrex/Debian-nVidia/installation.html but
none of the (4) methods works. I need a less-new kernel, or compile my
own kernel.

I decided to compile my own kernel using information found here:
http://www.debianuniverse.com/readonline/chapter/21

However, "apt-cache search kernel-source" only gives me options for
older 2.2 or 2.4 kernels. My sources.list is OK. Why on earth would
the only kernels available to me be 2.2 or 2.4?

Craig