OK, so I did that, and got the same error, only now on the "correct" kernel, namely 2.6.4-1-686.
So, I can boot fine from the Xandros rescue floppy, with the 2.4.22-x1 kernel, and have complete access to the hard drive. However, I can't even boot from the same kernel off the hard drive now, as it hangs in the same spot: initializing kernel...
I booted with the "Expert" setting (which passes "single" to the boot process), and I think I see what must be going on in the other boot failures. I see one "mount" failure, which claims some incorrect type, but it continues from there (something in the VFS section).
However, it seems to hang when it gets to "/sbin/init: 347: cannot open dev/console: file not found".
The next line (which is the last one where it hangs) says: Kernel Panic: Attempted to kill init! s. keeling wrote:
Did you run lilo before re-booting? If not, you should boot from CD, mount your root ptn, run lilo, then re-boot.